


Smoke & Mirrors

by Smolfryz



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: Angst, BAMF Rosa Diaz, Bisexual Amy Santiago, Dark Jake Peralta, Domestic Violence, Drama and Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, Femslash, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, LGBTQ Character, Love Confessions, Not Canon Compliant, Out of Character, Physical Abuse, Self-Doubt, Serial Killers, Slow Burn, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2020-06-11 21:08:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 73,665
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19549723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Smolfryz/pseuds/Smolfryz
Summary: Not every couple you see is perfect behind closed doors, even the ones people generally love and adore. Amy Santiago can attest to that, but she won't. How could she when her husband is one of the best detectives in Brooklyn? It wasn't until Rosa accidentally discovered bruises on her arms one evening does she finally have a chance to escape her prison. But what kind of challenges will this bring, especially when everyone at the precinct is up in arms over a serial killer targeting women in the city?





	1. Girl With The Broken Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, before anyone starts spewing hate, I actually ship Jake/Amy and Rosa/Amy. I just want to explain through story that even the most loved couples aren’t always what they seem on the surface. Obviously, Jake would never do this to Amy canonically, so simmer down before smoke starts coming out of your ears. Comments ARE being moderated, so keep the negativity to yourself! Thanks!
> 
> If you or anyone you know is suffering from domestic violence, PLEASE don't hesitate to call the hotline number ♥  
> I love all of you even if I don’t know you. National Number: 1-800-799-7233

It had been nearly lunch hour and Rosa Diaz had been underneath a pile of paperwork. She seemed to be stressed, but no one could really tell or figure out if she was. Captain Holt had assigned her a case to work. A case that allowed her to show what she was really made of. She was a good detective already and she knew that, but what she wanted was something far more challenging. A few days ago, she and Jake had been partnered up to take on one of the most notorious serial killers New York has ever seen. The vics were all women. All twenty of them except for one had been hacked by cleaver of some sort - something that a butcher would normally use.

The Brooklyn Butcher as they call him… or her. Whichever. It’s 2019 who’re we to judge? A lot of the cases relating to the BB end up becoming so cold that it was only until now Rosa wanted to open it back up. It took a lot of effort on Captain Holt’s part to contact Major Crimes and allow them to have this, but it was finally granted to them and she couldn’t fuck this up. She couldn’t have a distraction now. There were plenty of files to go through, but trying to cross information with other case reports had been difficult to say the least. The only intriguing part of the case is that one body wasn’t disposed like the rest of them which was peculiar. Other than that, every which way the case went was different.

Rosa had searched every inch of Brooklyn it seemed. It was going on two weeks and she was feeling lethargic and disoriented from staying up long hours. Not to mention her eating habits have gotten worse. She should probably take a break. Get something to eat. Relax for a moment or even talk to some of her workmates. They were all necessities, but Rosa continued working diligently. That stern, stoic expression etched into her face made Jake wince every time he looked over at her. Everyone tried to help break her concentration and even Gina had attempted to perform some interpretive dance of Hitchcock and Scully eating. Nothing. 

“Not now, Linetti. I’m busy.” Rosa barely looked up from her work and she scribbled away trying to connect dots and keep important information written down. Gina huffs, spinning around on the balls of her feet and shrugged her shoulders at Jake who had been watching. He was worried, of course. He knew that Rosa was going to get herself sucked into this case and never be able to get out of it unless it was taken away from her. Jake stood from his seat and carefully approached Rosa. She was like a wild animal that if provoked, she would probably attack you in a heartbeat if startled. Or at the very least, you’d have something thrown at you. “Rosaaa~,” said Jake in a little sing-song tone. 

“Why don’t you come with me to get some lunch at the food truck? Amy is going with me, too, and you could use some fresh air.” He smells the air around her and makes a disgusted face. “And maybe a shower. How long have you been sitting here exactly?”

“Stopped counting after day three,” she said simply. Her apartment was a couple blocks away and she couldn’t stop to go and shower at least? “Could you leave me be? I have to finish gathering enough information before we go out tomorrow night and interview the vic’s family members we have. The last body was dumped at Prospect and we need fresh eyes.” She finally looks up from her files, and Jake is amazed that she can even still see with the bloodshot redness that was overtaking them. Jake knows this is serious. He has never seen her so aggressively take control of a case before. 

“At least come and get food,” Jake said. Boy, he was persistent. Rosa stretches her back, feeling the pain that been settled down in her lower spine. She really doesn’t understand how Hitchcock and Scully do this all day, every day. Rosa desired to be in the street. She wants to bring the bad guys in and serve punishment where it’s due. However, she wouldn’t be able to do that if she didn’t have the proper amount of sleep or the right nutrition in her body. She supposed Jake had a point. “Fine - you win, but you’re buying my food,” she said and Jake clapped at his own little victory despite having to pay.

He didn’t mind, though. Rosa was coming out side to get some fresh air, something clearly needed. Rosa signs off at her computer and rubs the corners of her eyes lightly in case her mascara had been smeared. She can feel how tired it is, but she won’t admit it. As she stands, everyone looks up in the precinct and a little relief breaks tension as she heads to the elevators with Jake. 

•••

Once they were down on the first floor, they meet up with Amy. There was a tired expression on her face, and Rosa couldn’t help but wonder if she was working more cases than she was. “Hey, Jake. Hey, Rosa.” 

“Santiago.” Amy’s maiden name comes naturally to Rosa. It keeps slipping from her that she is now a Peralta, but even then that doesn’t come to mind and Amy didn’t correct her which was interesting. She must not mind it either. Besides it would be forever strange to call her Peralta. Rosa watches as the married love birds kiss, and she couldn’t help but give them a massive eye roll. “Ew. Oh god. Please, don’t make me turn around. I’m losing what appetite I have.” 

They head to the hot dog stand, which had been Jake’s favorite. He ordered four himself and Amy simply ordered a side of fries. She wasn’t feeling hungry it seemed and Rosa took notice of it. “Chili dog for me,” she said with a nod and as jake searched for his wallet he had realized he misplaced it. If he recalled, it was up in his desk drawer and Rosa watches him with a plain, unamused expression. Amy shakes her head, pulling out her own, offering to buy for them all. “Here, I have you guys. It’s on me this time.” 

“Put that away,” said Rosa as she pulled her own money out. “You don’t have to. I got it.”

“What?” Jake seemed shocked at the suggestion. “You just forced me to buy your own. How come Amy doesn’t have to?”

“Why are you even arguing with me?” Rosa snapped. Obviously, her tiredness was making her even more irritable than she normally is so Jake backed off, knowing that if he didn’t, he wouldn’t get his share. Amy mouthed a thank you to the detective even though she felt guilty about Rosa buying for them. She knows how hard the woman has been working according to Jake. After they had exchanged the food and money, Rosa picked out a bench nearby and sat down, slouching down and crossed one leg over the other. It was actually a nice day, so she was glad to enjoy it for a little bit.

Amy and Jake were discussing their plans for the weekend and all Rosa could think about was the case. Even though she was away from her desk, her mind always went back to it. Those poor women and their loved ones who were mourning their loss. How can those two just talk about the weekend when there was so much that needed to be done? “Hey, I’m going to stay late tonight, do a little overtime to help Rosa out.” Jake said and Amy only nodded, unsure if that was a good idea or not. The only problem with this idea is that Jake was the one who brought Amy to work this morning. She could get an Uber if she wanted. 

They had moved closer to the precinct so it would be easier for the both of them, but walking home still seemed difficult. “That would be nice of you to finally help out, Jake.” Rosa huffed softly as she gave him a stern look. “You have files to sort out. We halved them remember? Ten for you, ten for me. I can’t be doing my own work and pulling your damn weight.” Jake turns to her with a hot dog is stuffed halfway down his throat. He knows that he has been slacking on the case, but only because he thought Rosa wanted it. She was primary after all. “Don’t worry. By tomorrow morning, I promise that I’ll have half of them done by then!” 

He swallows down his hot dog, and begins on another and Amy couldn’t help but stare. Did Jake even taste them? Amy is silent as she nibbles on her fries and Rosa wonders why she hadn’t been talking so much like she usually is. There must be something on her mind. No, don’t get involved. Just stay out of it. Rosa finishes off her chili dog and stands on her feet, discarding the wrapping paper in the trash. She looks over at them before giving them a little wave. “Well, back to my casework.”

•••

It was around 4pm and more than half of the detectives had left. Only Terry and Captain Holt was around and Rosa looks up from her work to search for Jake. Of course, he was nowhere to be found. Typical. “Detective Diaz, are you sure you’re going to be fine here?” Rosa looks up at her Captain and nods to him and she reassures him that she will be fine. “I’m only going to stay for a little bit longer. I probably do need to shower eventually,” she finally admitted out loud. Holt nodded to her, pleased that she is hearing her colleagues concerns for her well being. 

“Detective, please don’t lose yourself in this case. I’ve seen it happen far too many times in my career and it’s hard to come back from it.” Holt gives Rosa a fair warning as he slips on his jacket and picks up his laptop case and slings it over his shoulder. “Now, I have to get home. Kevin and I are planning on having a nice evening with Alex Trebek and a bottle of chardonnay.” Rosa raised an eyebrow, with no clue on who that is. She didn’t think Holt ever had dinner guests unless it was some fancy party that Kevin threw. God forbid the next time she had to go to one of those. 

“Who, Sir?” Rosa asks curiously. 

“Jeopardy, Diaz.” Terry said sharply with a hint of annoyance in his tone. He shook his head lightly. “Do you ever watch anything educational?” 

Rosa leans back in her chair and lightly shrugs her shoulders. "Educational as in serial killer documentaries?" She raises an eyebrow in question.

“Uh, sure…” said Terry slowly with a unsure tone. “Goodnight, Diaz.” 

“Goodnight Sarge, Captain.” 

After a bit of research, Rosa heard the elevator doors ding and she looks up as she is the only one left on the floor. It was Amy coming in and it surprised Rosa to see her. Santiago seemed like she was stressing far more than usual and she strides over to Rosa’s desk and sits down at the chair beside her. Clearly, she was just as exhausted as she was, but Rosa was never going to let her see that. “Where’s Jake? He should be here doing paperwork with me.” 

“He’s with Charles. Don’t ask. He won’t take me home first before he does any of this and that would leave me stuck here if I don’t get an Uber or something.” Rosa glances over, feeling a bit sorry for her. Jake was a nice guy, but he seemed far too immature to be with someone like Amy who is completely responsible for a lot of things, especially the things that Jake does. To be honest, ever since the beach house trip a few years ago, Rosa had a very close encounter with Amy in her drunken state. It was interesting to say the least and she wondered what had happened if she hadn’t stopped her when she did.

When it reached Four Drink Amy, someone she knew Amy to be a bit of a pervert, Rosa was surprised at how aggressive she was… sexually. They had talked about what happened that day before and Rosa was convinced her feelings for Amy in the past were still there, but because Amy is with Jake she had kept them to herself. She recalls Amy backing her into a corner while everyone was in the Jacuzzi with Holt and attempted to kiss her. She was going to lie and say she almost caved, but she didn’t want to hurt Jake. He was her friend. Rosa shakes her head, ridding the memory when she hears Amy groan. 

“When I’m done here, I can take you home if you want. I just have to sort out these crime scene photos.” Rosa says and looks down at several pictures of bodies that all seem to be adjusted in the same position in each photo. It was peculiar and Amy looked down at them, wincing. “Those poor women. I really hope you and Jake find this bastard.” She picks two photos up, noticing how the bodies were dismantled in the same manner by a cleaver. It was bizarre. Something she hadn’t really seen before. “And I do appreciate it. I think I’ll take you up on that offer. Jake and Charles are debating which pizza toppings are the best and when Jake said pineapple, Charles through the biggest hissy fit I’ve ever seen.”

Rosa smirks to herself at the image in her head of Boyle going crazy over it. She knows how he loves food so much, so it’s no surprise that he would have an opinion on it. “I think anyone who chooses pineapple on pizza as a topping should be deemed criminally insane.” Rosa said. It was nice to hear Amy laugh since recently it had been a rare occasion. Work must have been getting to her with her new job. Rosa attempts to keep her stoic expression, trying to keep her internal smiling where it should be. There was something about Amy that made her feel human like this and Rosa knew that she was the only exception to that feeling.

“That’s amazing,” Amy says as she places the photos back down where they were. “I should probably text Jake and tell him you’re giving me a ride.” Rosa nodded as she placed a couple file folders neatly on her desk. The other half of them laid at the corner untouched, but she knows that Jake will be getting to them soon, or at least hopefully. “If Jake does his part, we might be able to go look around Prospect Park. That’s where the last body was found.” Amy genuinely found the case interesting and wished that she could be apart of it. She knew that she wasn’t allowed, but she wondered if Holt could consider it. 

It was a big case and maybe Rosa and Jake could use an extra pair of eyes. “It sounds crazy. Please, I want you and Jake to be super careful.” Amy places a hand on Rosa’s forearm which made her jump slightly at the contact. Instantly, the brunette retracts her hand quickly, but smiles as Rosa stands on her feet with Jake’s cases in her arms. “You know me. I’m always careful. Come on. I’m going to put these on Jake’s desk and we can be on our way.” A sort of brightness sparkled in Amy’s eyes and she followed Rosa to the elevators, excited that she was going to be one of those rare people to experience a ride on a motorcycle. 

This wasn’t just any old motorcycle. It was Rosa’s.

The ride home was interesting to say the least. Amy kept tightening her squeeze around Rosa’s waist so much that Rosa could barely focus on the road. The air felt like it was being restricted from her brain and that was the reason she was so disoriented. Or at least, that’s what Rosa kept telling herself. She knew the real reason, but she had to keep those thoughts away. “Hang on,” Rosa said as she revved the bike several times as she pulled away from a red light. Rosa normally wanted to show off with the bike any given time, but with Amy riding behind her, she knew she had to take precautions.

Amy was comfortable aside from the drops in her stomach she felt every now and then. Being behind Rosa though made her feel safe… and warm. She laid her head down on Rosa’s back to keep the wind out of her face (even if she still had a spare helmet on) and she could feel the vibrations from the road. She wondered if Rosa can feel them the same way she did when she rode this bike. Alive. “Where’s your apartment again? I keep forgetting.” It has been a while since the last time Rosa was at Jake and Amy’s place. Come to think of it, the last time she was there was actually at their house warming party when they finally moved in together. “Just up here. It’s on the left.” They had entered a little suburban area of Brooklyn and it was fairly nice. Rosa pulled up and rolled slowly to a stop before shutting the ignition off.

“Thanks, Rosa. Would you like to come in?” 

“Ah, I should probably get going. I have to take care of myself before I get back in the office tomorrow.” Rosa sees the expression in Amy’s face subtly chance to disappointment and it makes the detective sigh helplessly. Well, an hour wouldn’t hurt to hang out for a little bit. “Alright, I’ll stay for a little bit.” Those words made Amy’s eyes light up again and Rosa parks her bike properly before pulling her leg from the other side of it. She takes the keys from the ignition and follows Amy to the door. “So, that case is very crazy, huh?” Amy says as she unlocks the door and Rosa follows in behind her.

The smell of the house was enticing. A wax melt burner had been on all day in the kitchen and Rosa could smell peaches and strawberries. “Yeah. It’s pretty exhausting though.” Their place wasn’t that bad. It was spacious in the living area, had a leather couch which Rosa admired and the kitchen was wide and open which she was sure that Amy enjoyed despite her terrible cooking skills. Amy sighs with relief, slipping out of her work shoes and kicking them to the door. It was nice having Rosa here even though she half wondered to herself that was something dangerous considering she knows how Rosa felt. Were those feelings still there? 

With Jake working long hours nowadays, it had been rather lonely at the house. Having company for once even it was going to brief made Amy feel a bit better, especially since there had been a serial killer on the loose out there targeting women. She wasn’t going to deny that it terrified her. “Make yourself at home,” she said as she tiptoed around the coffee table and sat down into the sofa. Amy sighs, turning the television on the evening news and sees that Rosa is taking everything in. “Would you like some water or anything to drink?” Amy asks rather politely. Rosa declines the gesture with a little shake of her head as she sits down next to the woman.

“How’s work?” Rosa asks.

Amy raises an eyebrow at the question. She thought Rosa hated small talk and here she was asking about her daily work life. It was really odd, but sitting here like this with someone you haven’t hung out with in forever would become kind of awkward at first. “Oh, it’s great. They’ve been having me train a lot of new K9s, so it’s never a dull moment.” Amy smiles. A thin layer of awkwardness settles in the room and Rosa focuses her attention on the local news that came on the TV when Amy turned it on. They were talking about the Brooklyn Butcher. It seems like Rosa can’t get away from the case whether she is at work or elsewhere. For now, it’s simply stuck to her like glue. 

“I’m going to get out of this and get started on dinner,” Amy said and gestured to her uniform. “I’m sure when Jake is done with paperwork, he’ll be hungry when he’s home.” Rosa was rather surprised that she even wanted to cook. In the past, Rosa has tried Amy’s cooking and everything wasn't less than edible. She wonders if Amy had gone to several cooking classes or something of that sort, and if that was the case Rosa wouldn’t mind trying her cooking again. Amy hurries off to the bedroom to change into some lounge wear - simply a t-shirt and black leggings that had NYPD pattern on them. She must have had them custom made. Dork. 

Rosa takes her gun and badge off her belt and slides them across the little coffee table in front of her and she watches Amy gather things for dinner; chicken, vegetables and a lot of spices. She stands on her feet and mills around, watching curiously as Amy opens up the chicken and begins to separate it. “Would you like any help? I’ve been told I’m a decent cook.” Rosa says as she takes a head of broccoli, but was stopped by Amy who gently grabbed her arm in protest. “No, you’re my guest. You should go sit down.”

At that time, Rosa noticed something peculiar on Amy’s arms. They were splotches of different color, some that were faded but most were blue and green. “Hey, Amy,” started Rosa in a questioning tone as she takes her other hand and reaches for Amy’s arm to see them better. Rosa knew what they were. She had seen them countless times on domestic abuse cases and Rosa isn’t sure what to say or how to ask. “W-What’re these?” Amy’s expression becomes hardened, and she takes in a deep breath before exhaling. How could she be so careless? She had changed so quickly because she didn’t want to keep Rosa waiting alone, she had forgotten to cover them.

She thought about lying. Maybe she could say it was from a perp that was being roughing her up a bit? Or that it was a self-defense class that had gone a little out of hand? No. Rosa wasn’t stupid and she knew it. How in the hell would she explain that the reason for these bruises was because of Jake? They have been having marital problems for a few months now. In the beginning, everything was fine. She was happy. He was happy. Their marriage was blissful and Amy wouldn’t have changed it for anything and truth of it all, Amy loves him despite everything. Every now and then, Jake had been coming home from work angry. 

He might have been concealing his real issues from everyone at the Nine-Nine, but Amy got the blunt force of it all when he came home. “They’re bruises,” she quickly admits, her voice became a bit softer than usual. Amy figured that telling someone now would be the only way she can get out of it. Especially if it’s Rosa. “Jake has been angry lately. I don’t know if it’s the extra work he’s had piled on, or what. He takes it out on me here at home.” She feels like hell. Amy had been hiding the fact that Jake had been doing this for months after a year of marriage. She had concealed most of them with makeup whenever she went out, but because she was in uniform most of the time at work, she didn’t really have to worry about it.

Rosa is stunned. Initially shock would be the first thing that she experiences. The very idea that Jake is doing this doesn’t seem likely, but Rosa couldn’t assume yet. She hasn’t seen any noticeable changes in his behavior at work, but like Amy’s cover up with the bruises, Jake could be doing the same thing with his feelings. It was hard to believe, but Amy seemed to be truthful. She had no reason to lie. They had loved each other so much. It’s just a little hard for Rosa to process. After a moment or two, suddenly anger boiled so deeply inside her it was almost impossible for her to contain it. Rosa always portrayed herself as someone who could handle just about anything, but this? This was enough to send her into a rage.

“Rosa,” said Amy quietly. “Say something. Anything.”


	2. Reality Check

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After she finds out about the secret Amy's been hiding for months, Rosa cultivates a plan to help her friend out of a toxic situation.

To say it nicely, Rosa was absolutely pissed. Why didn’t she see it before? She was a detective for fuck sake. She should have been able to easily spot the red flags, but no. Jake had been doing this right under her nose. He was considered her closest friend, but she still had deep romantic feelings for Amy - and that’s where her loyalty truly lied if truth be known. She thought she had better say something before Amy realized it was her fault. It wasn’t. Never will be her fault and that was something Rosa had to engrave in her mind. “How long?”

“Five months,” the sergeant replied and she sinks against the counter, forgetting about the chicken while Rosa continued to chop vegetables. Rosa knew why Amy didn’t tell anyone. They both worked for the police. It would risk both of their careers if it had gotten out. Rosa knew the entire PD would know about it within a day or so. Rumors in that place spread like wildfires. Rosa was in the middle of her thoughts, trying to sort her angry ones from logical. In the middle of it all, the knife in Rosa’s hand slipped, slicing open her index finger. She hissed in pain as blood trickled quickly from it. 

Amy gasped slightly, turning on the water. “Under the water,” she said softly. “It’ll help.” Rosa doesn’t complain and quickly holds her finger under the water and she watches Amy quickly retrieve the first aid kit from the hallway closet by the bathroom. They had kept one around just in case. Where Amy was new to cooking, she would injure herself a lot. She had used it many times after fights with Jake that resulted in her having little cuts and bruises. She had always taken care of herself though. Growing up with seven brothers, it was something you learned to get used to. She takes a bandage from the box and a little packet of ointment. 

“Give me your hand,” she said and takes Rosa’s hand in her own whilst turning the water off. She sighs, cleaning the wound thoroughly before dabbing a dime sized amount of ointment on Rosa’s finger. To Rosa, it had been rather soothing. Amy was always so gentle and the way she works the bandage around her cut felt satisfying. Rosa watches, taking her index finger and thumb and tapping them together to check the soreness. It was going to be sore for a few days, but it wasn’t anything compared to what Amy has been going through. “Thanks,” Rosa mumbled and tries to wipe up what little blood she sees on Amy’s counter with a couple paper towels.

Amy is putting everything away when Rosa leans against the counter, contemplating over the whole situation. Amy could have come to her at least if anything, but because this was Jake and being part of the PD, it was going to be complicated regardless. Amy walks back through the kitchen, letting herself wrap an arm around her loosely. She feels guilty for not telling Rosa, but how could she? At least Rosa is being far too cooperative than she thought she was going to be. Wait until she told her there were more, though. So much for staying just an hour. 

Dinner had laid forgotten, and Rosa figured that it was probably best if they had ordered something instead. Focusing on cooking now would just make conversation stale and this needed to be fresh. Amy needed to talk about this even though it hurt her to. She loved Jake, she really does, but he has become someone else that terrified her. “I’m sorry, Rosa.” She said as she watched the detective begin putting everything away. She placed the spices back where she thought they belonged, the thawed chicken in ziplock baggies as well as the chopped veggies. She looks over at Amy for a second, and there was hurt and shame on her face and seeing that sends another wave of anger through her.

“Do not say you’re sorry,” said Rosa as she closes the fridge and pulls out her phone. “It’s never your fault, okay? Don’t blame yourself for any of this.” There was an unusual soft tone to Rosa’s voice despite the severity of it. Amy listens, nodding her head as she felt Rosa grip her shoulders gently. At the contact, Amy tenses but she knows Rosa is simply trying to get her attention. “We’re going to order some food, okay? We’re going to sit on the couch and watch tv and talk through this. You won’t have to do anything.” Having Rosa around did put Amy at ease. She thought logically and was a realist, and someone Amy needed to keep her grounded in moments like these.

“We’ll figure something out. I promise we will. Even if we can’t go to the police right now, there’s always a loophole.” 

Without even hesitating, she pulls Amy into an embrace and keeps her held there against her chest for a few minutes. She wondered if Amy would consider leaving Jake - at least for a few days so they could figure out what to do. Rosa had to consider this case now that this has came about. On one hand, if she kept quiet and worked the case with Jake, she knew things will get worse for Amy. On the other hand, if Rosa brought it up in conversation, Jake might become hostile toward her and their case will hang in the balance. Holt will probably re-assign it to someone else or send it back to Major Crimes if he sees there's a problem. It would be a loss for the Nine-Nine.

Amy was extremely surprised by the way Rosa is acting. She was being nice. Supportive. Friendly. Something that was rarely ever seen at work. She wondered to herself if these actions were due to the feelings Rosa had for her, or if this was just Rosa trying to be a friend. Amy had never seen Rosa hug anyone much less herself. She swallows then pulls away slightly so she can see the concern look in her friend’s eyes. “Let me see them again,” Rosa requested and she turns Amy’s forearm over, lightly tracing her thumb across them. The touch was soothing to Amy and she can understand the concern Rosa has. She was just glad she didn’t explode at this revelation.

“I’m so sorry you’ve been going through this. I’m going to beat Jake’s ass.”

Amy felt a little emotional. There was a lump the size of a cantaloupe in her throat which makes it difficult for Amy to swallow now. She appreciates how loyal Rosa is, only because she didn't think she would believe her. It would have been her word against Jake's, and everyone would believe him. She shakes her head, sniffling a little before she looks up from her hands. “No, Rosa. Don't do that. Please. You'll be just as bad as him and you know it.” The words made Rosa stop and think. 

She's right. Rosa couldn't let her anger get the best of her. She takes in a deep breath and exhales, nodding her head when she looks at her phone. Thankfully, there's a text from Jake saying he started on the case files that were left for him. She couldn't leave Amy now that this happened. With Jake at work, there was no harm in stay later than intended. “Go sit. I'll order some Thai food or something. My favorite place is right around the corner from here and they deliver.”

“Sure. That sounds good.” 

“What would you like?” Rosa asks as she adds a couple things for herself into the shopping cart. She looks at Amy inquisitively and simply just asks for chicken and rice meal. Rosa raises an eyebrow, sighing as she adds it and then a couple spring rolls. Even though this horrible thing happened to Amy, there was no way Rosa was going to let her go hungry. That's usually what Amy did when something was on her mind. Rosa watches the other woman as she sits down on the couch with her phone in her lap. 

Amy is mindlessly scrolling through Facebook, trying to keep herself distracted and her focus off Jake. She wasn’t successful and Rosa understood if her mind drifted back to there because she was thinking about it too. He had abused her. Abused Amy Santiago who she thought was loved by that man. At the time, Rosa her mind was at peace knowing the fact at least Amy was safe with someone she knew and trusted. He not only physically abused her, but mentally and emotionally. Rosa sits down next to Amy, taking the remote and immediately changing it to the History Channel for some historical documentary. Something she knew that Amy would probably like.

“Oh, you don’t have to -,” Amy was cut off suddenly.

“Stop. We’re watching this. End of story.” 

What exactly was it about? Rosa checks the info and sees it’s a historical documentary about stamps. For Rosa, it wasn’t ideal, but she didn’t mind suffering through an hour or two of this for Amy’s sake. Her friend had some of the strangest hobbies, but she was glad that she didn’t give a rat’s ass about what anyone thought. Rosa liked that about Amy the most. Amy was actually enjoying the show even though she had seen it once before already when it first aired last month. It was still fresh in her head even the first time around.

“Stamps are really interesting. Did you know Rowland Hill was knighted for creating the first adhesive stamp?” 

Total nerd. That’s exactly what Amy is. In a way though, it’s rather adorable to watch her fangirl over things any other person would find incredibly boring. Did Amy not realize that there is no other universe in existence where Rosa would enjoy stamps? Of course she didn’t know. Rosa leans back into the couch, fiddling with the straps of her leather jacket as she was lost in thought. One guy had came on the screen for an interview, and Rosa looks up as he was chatting about how stamps, depending on their mint condition status, can be extremely valuable. Rosa raised an eyebrow, finding it slightly interesting.

“Damn. The rarest stamp in the world is worth 10 million!? No fucking way.” The detective’s mouth hung open slightly, surprised that it was that much. Amy smiled, chuckling at Rosa’s reaction and shrugged. “And that’s only one little stamp,” she said smugly and began to relax when the conversation had turned to something more lighthearted. Amy was completely fine with this and she was glad that Rosa was at least trying to seem interested. Jake never took an interest at all. He thought it was cute that she liked stamps and other mundane things, but never really watched anything with her like this. Amy appreciated Rosa’s interaction with her, but knew that money would always be a topic that Rosa was interested in.

It was fun when she was working in the bullpen with everyone else. Bets were always placed on the most random things and Rosa had always bet even when the stakes were high. It made her work life interesting, but now it’s just busy and chaotic. At least it’s keeping her mind occupied until she gets home. “Of course, money will get your attention,” Amy added with a little laugh. It was nice being this open with the woman for once and she missed all the times they hung out after work at Shaw’s Bar or somewhere entirely random with Gina tagging along. Now that she was married and new career in the PD, things were much more difficult. Even now with Jake behaving the way he is.

As they were sitting there talking about different kinds of stamps, Amy wondered what it would have been like if she hadn’t married Jake at all. Would she be with Rosa instead? She didn’t know. For her entire life, Amy always thought she was straight, but lately, she wasn’t so sure anymore. It was scary, confusing and intimidating and even now it was hard to come to terms with whatever she was feeling, especially toward Rosa. They had always considered each other good friends, or at least that’s what it is in Amy’s head and at the very least casual colleagues. If she had accepted this of herself, she entertained the thought of them together and it was becoming a lot more complicated. After all, she was married to Jake. She couldn’t just pursue someone else. That’s not how any of this works.

“Rosa,” she says and looks down at her hands in her lap. This entire thing made her feel like a different person. She wasn’t the same person she saw in the mirror anymore and it pained her heart. She had longed for things to go back to the way they were before she and Jake were married and were simply dating, but this was her only chance. “There are more.” Amy shifts her attention to Rosa, who was looking at her with this expression she couldn’t figure out. She had wiped away the makeup that covered a nasty bruise on her right cheek. It was dark colored and painfully fresh. “I can’t stay here anymore. But I have nowhere to go.” 

This was the first time she had ever admitted it, even to herself. She always found the situation too embarrassing because she always thought she was strong and that she could handle it, but overtime this constant abuse had finally broke her. Rosa on the other hand was fairly certain that if Jake was here right now, she wouldn’t be able to control the rage that rippled through her when Amy revealed the bruise. She took in a breath and exhaled, trying to calm her nerves because she didn’t want to overreact and upset Amy. These breathing exercises helped quite a bit and she had practiced them every single yoga session, but right now she wasn’t feeling all that centered.

After a few more attempts, she was able to calm herself without wanting to yell. Instead, she closed her eyes and exhaled slowly before opening them back up and looked at Amy. Rosa’s entire body was tense, but she did have an idea to get Amy out of this dire situation. “Okay,” she begins with a determined nod. “We’re going to eat dinner when it gets here then you’re going to pack a small bag and come stay at my apartment for a while.” Rosa was sacrificing her privacy for Amy’s safety only because there was no question about it - Amy was far more important. She normally didn't like the idea of people staying over at her apartment, but Rosa told herself that she would have to get over it quickly because of how serious this is.

There was a lack of judgement in Rosa’s eyes and tone and this eased Amy’s heart a little with the whole thing. At first, she had thought Rosa was upset or disappointed in her, but now she hears she wants to help her. Even allowing her to stay at her apartment on such short notice. There was a slight softness, perhaps even a little anger, but Amy saw that none of that was directed to her and only toward Jake. A part of Amy wanted to refuse the offer, knowing how personal Rosa keeps her life outside the precinct, but she was sure that Rosa won’t let her. It warmed her heart, knowing that someone like Rosa was still looking after her even when she hadn’t reciprocated Rosa’s feelings. Nothing had really changed.

“Text Jake. Tell him that you have a family emergency and that you need to go to your parent’s place for a few days,” Rosa stood on her feet and began to pace. She can see that Amy is unsure. Would this plan even work or just cause Jake to become hostile toward both of them if he finds out that Rosa knew and that Amy told her? “How much vacation leave do you have? You can use it to keep from having to see Jake at work. At least until we’ve figured out what to do.” If anything, Rosa could surrender some of her vacation leave. Desperate times calls for desperate measures and Rosa was going to try to do everything possible to keep Amy at a distance from Jake.

“A week and a half. I can call tomorrow and start requesting time off.”

Amy takes her phone and sends Jake a little text about the family emergency, feeling her heart beat faster with every word she types. They had a small window of opportunity right now. As long as Jake was still at work and goofing off, maybe he’ll have to stay all night to finish the files. Maybe that’s what he wanted? To keep away from Amy as much as he could. She frowned at the thought and slips her phone into her back pocket and stands. “I think I’m going to go pack my bag while we wait. Feel free to watch what you want.”

She gestures toward the remote and hurries off to the master bedroom. For a moment, Rosa wanted to follow her to make sure she was okay, but right now maybe Amy needed a bit of space. This was all so overwhelming for the both of them, but more with Amy. She sits down and continues watching the documentary for a few seconds only to switch it to something a little bit more graphic on the ID channel. She might have been a good detective, but there was always something to learn even when watching crime television or something similar. 

However, with the case she was working on, she knew this would probably feel a little intense, so she switches it to something else entirely, hoping it would lighten the mood and keep both of their attentions. When Amy returns, she has a backpack ready with all the necessities. Rosa feels terrible, seeing the look of distress on Amy’s face made Rosa feel more determined than ever. This toxic relationship was eating her from the inside out and she knows that taking Amy away from this nightmare is the first step into Amy’s recovery. She needed to feel better physically and mentally before she can deal with Jake.

“Are you sure you want me to stay with you?” Amy asks as she sits down again, dropping her backpack on the floor next to her. There is a tiny hole in her heart and it feels like it would be nearly impossible to find something to replace it. Currently, it’s simply a void. “I don’t want to intrude or burden you with any of this, Rosa.”

“Look, I don’t care. You need to get out of this, Amy. That’s what’s important. Jake is toxic. He’s treating you like shit. You know how much I care about you and letting you stay with me is showing you that. You know that more than anyone and that’s saying a helluva lot.” Her words were serious and Amy can see that now. She breathes out quickly and gives the woman little nod but jumps slightly when there is a knock on the door. Amy tenses, fearing it was Jake coming to raise hell over her leaving for a few days, but Rosa had stood up to answer it. Rosa opens the door slightly, then realizing it had been their food delivery.

She opens the door, and the older gentleman was extremely pleased to see that it was Rosa, one of his favorite customers. Amy watches with interest as the two conversed even in the man’s native tongue. Amy didn’t know that Rosa spoke Thai and found it impressive. It seemed that he had spoke little English. The man was in his sixties and she was surprised that he was still working, but Amy supposed that working is what kept the man alive and kicking. It was sweet, watching Rosa smile and hand off a $5 tip the man had refused. He had waved it away, excusing Rosa because of his favoritism toward her, but Rosa folded the bill in half and stuck it in his shirt pocket. 

The man seemed really happy and when Rosa takes the food in exchange for her money, he comes in with an embrace which made Rosa uncomfortable. Amy places a hand to her mouth to stifle a little laugh, knowing how the detective feels. At least she knew him. Amy couldn’t imagine if the man was a total stranger to her. This wouldn’t have ended well that way. Rosa waves and closes the door and locking it up tightly before sitting back down on the couch. The interaction was quickly explained when Rosa handed Amy her container of chicken and rice. “He’s a sweetheart. I’ve been going to that place for a few years now and I’ve become sort of their favorite.”

Rosa digs for her container of fried calamari and quickly tears off the lid, feeling her stomach kick her for not eating as much as she should have during the day. She has just completely submerged herself in it and she knows now that is something to learn control of. “I didn’t know you spoke Thai, but I can see why now. If you’ve been going there for a while, I can imagine picking up a few things.” Rosa smirked, popping a couple calamari into her mouth while she gives Amy a look. “I dated his daughter for several months and she taught me some things.” Oh, that’s why Rosa was their favorite. Amy was a little surprised, but smiles when Rosa actually shared something like that. 

She had to admit that she was a little jealous of Rosa’s lifestyle. Outside of work, she seemed so carefree and didn’t have to worry about really anything. Amy wished she could be at least 30% bolder like Rosa - or at least enough courage to leave Jake for good, but she knows that she doesn’t have that. Not yet. “That definitely explains a lot.” Amy says when she pulls her chopsticks apart and begins to mix her food up. This entire conversation felt really normal, even though the situation they were in was anything but. She places her chicken down and glances to her phone. There was still no reply from Jake and she wondered if he had even seen it. She kept thinking about their issues, trying to figure out why a man she had once loved so much had turned into someone she absolutely hated.

•••

After their meals were eaten, Rosa helped make Amy sure that everything was turned off and that she had everything she needed. “Do you have your allergy medication? I still have Arlo, you know? He’s a big boy now. Don’t forget your E-Cig, too.” It was strange hearing how much Rosa knew about Amy and remembered it. She had started smoking E-Cigarettes when she had married Jake (sort of like a silent promise to herself to quit), but here recently she had switched back to the real thing. She hated herself for it because she had several months under her belt and she felt good about her progress, but all of that was taken from her the moment she lit one. She nods to Rosa, getting up from the couch to discard their empty containers and to collect two important necessities that she almost missed. 

“Did you get anything from Jake yet?” Rosa asks.

Amy looks down at her phone, sliding it open to unlock before checking her texts. There was still nothing and Amy shakes her head. It didn’t matter anymore and honestly she was pretty relieved that he hadn’t texted back yet. “We can just leave now,” she decided. There was no more laughter. It had vanished along with brightness in her eyes which had been replaced by a gray sadness. Rosa turns off the lights, and Amy takes her bag and slings it over her shoulder before getting into a pair of slip-on shoes. They had a good window right now if Jake was still at work and Rosa made sure that she left him plenty of work to do before he was allowed to come home. She wasn’t sure what was going to happen if he found out Amy left.

“You might want to call your parents when we get to my apartment. Explain to them what’s going on and that they might get a call from Jake,” Rosa commented as she slipped her motorcycle keys from her pocket and hands the other woman her spare helmet. “We can keep your car here for now. We’ll come back for it eventually.” Amy could see why her father didn't approve of Jake in the beginning. She should have listened to him and all of this could possibly have been avoided. Maybe one day after she has sorted everything out in her head, she may go to her parents for advice on what to do. She knows the first thing her father is going to say is to divorce him, but Amy doesn’t know if she has it in her heart to yet. She knows she will have to eventually, but her mind has been plagued by all the good memories she had with Jake.

Before she realizes it, she was wrapping her arms around Rosa’s waist. Today had been the first time she was ever on a motorcycle, and she had to admit they felt pretty good despite being so dangerous. That was the charm about them she supposed, but that was the kind of charm Rosa possessed. Rosa can feel Amy’s arms around her and when she started the ignition, she felt those arms tense. She smiles to herself, revving the bike a few times before she pulled out of her spot. Night had fallen on Brooklyn quite quickly and the streets stayed the same. People were a little scarce due to a mass serial killer on the loose, but that didn’t keep a lot of risk takers from being out and about. Life continued on that way - at least it did for Rosa.

She had only lived a block away from the precinct and no one really has ever really been there except for Jake and Captain Holt until she came out as bisexual. It was kind of funny listening to her co-workers guess where she lived and how. Amy was rather surprised that the apartment was quite simple the first time she saw it. She feels the way the engine rumbles between her legs and the heat fuels her excitement. Amy didn’t want to get off, but when they had rolled to a gentle stop and Rosa had shut the ignition off, she whined softly and removed her helmet. “You’re going to take me through the scenic route next time,” said Amy as she pulled her leg over to one side of the bike. Rosa smirks, taking her own helmet off and releases the kickstand. Amy pulls some sweaty hair behind her ears and follows Rosa to the door.

As she gazes around, she can hear a loud barking noise and happy dancy feet on wooden flooring, realizing it was Arlo. Rosa unlocks the door, and is practically tackled to the floor by a fully grown white labrador. Amy's badass friend that she thought she knew was sitting on the ground, laughing and cooing but all Amy could do was contain her allergies. “Thank god for allergy medication.” She sneezes and can feel her eyes begin to water. Rosa looks up, watching Amy step back away.

Despite her allergies, Amy smiles and sets her bag down by the door and moves out of the way. Arlo seemed rather curious about her, but before he was able to make an attempt to greet Amy properly, he was stopped by Rosa’s claps. “Come on, boy. You’re going in the bedroom. Sorry, Amy. I’ll keep him out of the way.” Rosa takes Arlo into her bedroom, but makes sure the pooch is alright before she puts him in his crate. She felt guilty for doing it, but she would let him out later once Amy went to bed. When she comes back, she sees Amy sitting down on one of the stools in the kitchen, taking a deep breath and exhaling. Rosa knew that Amy was going to be struggling with this for a while and who knows if she’ll ever really get over it. It fucking sucks, that Jake had gone this far.

“He texted back and he’s definitely not happy. I’ll have to call my parents,” she said as she scrolled down to her mother’s number and excuses herself softly to the living area. She stays by the window, glancing out in the darkness. Rosa watches curiously, grabbing a couple beers from her fridge. Maybe tonight they could just relax and chill for a bit. Rosa didn’t have to be at work until 7am and it was going on 9pm now. She pops the cap off one of the beers and took a little drink of it as she listened to Amy talk to her mother from the kitchen. She can hear the tone of Amy’s voice change. She was getting agitated and when she explains what’s going on, she can tell the sergeant was holding in her emotions. It was definitely the best move they could make, but Rosa noticed she left out the part about the bruises and how abusive Jake really was. She supposed Amy didn’t want her parents to worry.

“Talk to you later. Alright. I love you too,” she says and wipes her nose that was a little runny. Rosa wasn’t sure if it was from her emotions or from allergies. She takes another sip of beer when Amy hung up. An agitated groan escapes Amy and she reaches for the open beer that was offered to her. “Thanks,” she says as she leans against the bar. She takes a sip of beer and lays her phone behind her on the bar. It was all so confusing and Amy feels broken. At least her parents were warned that they were having marital issues. “You didn’t tell them about the… you know.” Rosa gestures to Amy’s arms and brunette shakes her head. “I don’t want them to worry yet. I feel embarrassed that even you know. I always said I was strong, Rosa. How could I let him do that to me?”

With a little sigh, Rosa tried to come up with something to say. Even if she was spitballing things that didn’t even make sense. She wanted to make Amy feel better somehow, but she couldn’t scrounge up anything that could. Rosa takes little steps toward the living area, and flopped down on the futon with the remote in her hand. “Come over here, Santiago.” She says as she changes the television to something they could both watch. It was some sort of documentary about treasure hunting and how they’re using the latest technology to scan vast areas of jungles with LIDAR and GPR. This wasn’t what Rosa had in mind for her Wednesday night, but there wasn’t much else on that was interesting other than basketball. 

Amy takes a seat on the futon, leaving her cell phone in the kitchen. She didn’t want to look at it because it would make her constantly think about Jake again. It was best that it was left alone so she could try to relax which sounds near impossible. “I didn’t realize how open the space in your apartment is.” Amy comments, as her eyes observe her surroundings. It was a fairly normal apartment with wooden floors and white walls and a honey colored trim. It was the weird things that Amy noticed that made her think differently about Rosa than what she thought of before. “Are those family portraits?” She asks and stands on her feet. For a quiet moment, Rosa panicked slightly and scrambled to her feet and was about to lose her beer in the process. 

How on earth was she supposed to explain this? She never had company except when she was seeing someone, but they didn’t really care about her pictures. Amy seemed genuinely fascinated and she heard her laugh when she picked up a picture of Rosa on her first day of Catholic school. Rosa was standing firm, a little too tense Amy thought, but she still had the same curly black hair that bounced around her shoulders but it was shorter. “This is terrible,” said Rosa as she tried to persuade Amy to surrender the picture. “Come on, Santiago. Give it back. That’s enough.” Rosa says as she places it back up on the mantle below the high hanging television. “I think you’ve seen enough.” 

“But you were adorable and your mother looks proud.”

“Yeah, that was before I was kicked out,” Rosa said and rolled her eyes. She laid all of the pictures in a face down position so Amy couldn’t get another look at them. Maybe when Rosa was at work the next day, Amy would do a bit of snooping in order to get more information about her. As much as she worked with Rosa, Amy didn’t know much about her, but she has learned more things about Rosa tonight than she has her entire career alongside her. They both take a sip of their beer and return to the futon, both sighing simultaneously as they sit down. There were several questions rolling through Rosa’s mind and she wanted to see if Amy had an answer to them.

First, she wondered if Jake had ever cheated on her in the past or recently. It could be a solid reason why he was behaving in this god awful way. He could be doing this to try and get out of a marriage instead of manning up and go through a proper divorce. This had been so much more damaging. If this wasn’t the case, then Jake was much more of an asshole than Rosa first thought. That means that Jake didn’t have a reason to be doing this - he just is. Rosa didn’t know how to go by asking without upsetting Amy, though. “Hey,” she says quietly and leans over until their shoulders touch. Rosa pulls back and glances over. “Has Jake ever… cheated on you? Like at all or here recently?” It was a lot harder to ask that question than Rosa first thought. She knows that if he has, this would jeopardize the entire case they’ve - well, she - has been working on.

Seeing the fear and how dull Amy’s eyes looked, it made Rosa believe that the main goal now was to put that brightness back into them. That was the only thing that was important. Amy was surprised by the question and she wasn’t sure herself honestly, but she was considering the fact that maybe Jake has cheated at least once since they were together. “I don’t know. I’m not sure,” she admitted when she was lost in thought. “I’ve seen him at home and work a lot, so who really knows.” Amy sinks back into the futon, sighing softly at the thought of Jake ever cheating. It was impossible to comprehend, but she had plowed through moments in her head, trying to find a single time he was able to slip away and do it.

It hurt even more considering that Jake might have been cheating. Even though the abuse had been going on for quite some time, he had already made Amy feel like she didn’t matter. That she was worthless and garbage that needed to be discarded at once. She stares off into space thinking about it, and Rosa noticed how much of a disconnect her thoughts and emotions had been. This really fucked with her mind and if Rosa finds out that Jake had been with other women, there’s no telling what she might do to him. If truth be told, Rosa wanted nothing more for all of this to go away. She wanted Amy to live happily without fear and one day have kids of her own with the person she loved. 

Rosa knows it wasn’t going to be and she had accepted that fact the moment Amy rejected her the first time. She clicks her tongue, groaning after she tries to calm her brain down. Normally, Rosa had a strict “no touch” rule, but Amy had been one of the few exceptions to it. Just for tonight, she decided to void that rule and slipped her hand to Amy’s free one. Rosa didn’t know what a friendly gesture was, but she knew it was something that was going to break Amy away from those thoughts in her head. She was silent and they both stared down at their interlocked hands and Amy glances up to smile. It was peculiar having Rosa become this intimate, but it was a nice gesture that brought her a little comfort.

Amy knew about Rosa’s no touch policy, so this meant a helluva lot more to her now than if anyone else would have done it. The feeling made Amy’s heart do a somersault and in her opinion that was a bad thing, but she couldn’t bring it to herself to pull her own hand away. Rosa loved her, or at least she did in the and it appears that she does still care. Amy had thought deep down she might have too. It was definitely confusing and Amy thought best to ignore it. “Everything will be fine. Just know that it’s not your fault, okay? You don’t have to worry about it right now. Just relax and maybe you can get some sleep tonight.” Amy nods her head, knowing that she might not, but at least she can still relax a little bit with Rosa beside her. She wouldn’t let anything happen and Amy felt a sense of security with that.

“So what do you want to watch?” Amy asks as she places down her beer and takes the remote in her hand. “Perhaps one of those crime shows?” She didn’t know how Rosa stood all the blood and gore. Didn’t she get enough of that at work? Apparently not. Amy winced at the bloody victim on the television even though it was a drama. What was that one show called, Protect & Serve? It had been Jake’s favorite cop show as well, but she shook her head, trying to keep Jake from entering her mind again. “Don’t you see enough of this at work?” She asked, teasing a little bit. “Maybe Holt can move you to a different division? A bloodier one.”

Rosa chuckles as she takes a sip of her beer again, trying to finish it before it becomes room temperature. “Maybe Holt can give me a Body Removal Team.” she says and raises a curious brow in Amy’s direction. Amy’s face has been lit up for the past several minutes and it makes Rosa feel better that she is making Amy feel like this. When she looks at the time, she realizes it was 10pm and she needed to get to bed soon. She hated leaving Amy alone like this, but she didn’t want to be exhausted if she needed to go interview the victim's family members. “A Body Removal Team? You’d be really good at that.” Of course, they both know that nothing like that exists. It was really the job of the coroner’s office to remove the body from the scene once enough evidence was gathered.

“You think?” Rosa asks as she adjusts her position on the futon to make it a little bit more comfortable. It was bizarre to be holding hands like this, but it was nice regardless. Rosa smiles, taking her thumb and caressing Amy’s soft skin. It almost felt normal and not awkward at all, but perhaps Rosa was expecting this to happen or she wished it. She looks up from their hands, and sees that Amy is starting to slouch back into the futon, becoming more comfortable as time passes. She realized that Amy didn’t bring any pillows or blankets, so she had to remind herself to get fresh ones from the closet. Arlo rolled around on most of her current ones, so the dog hair was going to be an issue if she didn’t.

That beer Amy drank made her feel sleepy. It wasn’t like liquor that always energized her, but because she was exhausted from dealing with Jake and explaining things to Rosa, she was feeling more than tired. Maybe she would get sleep tonight, but only because she was simply exhausted to the point her body could no longer function properly. Rosa releases Amy’s hand and a lonely coldness replaced the warmth. “I’m going to get a spare pillow and blanket for you. I’ll be back.” She smiles and heads to the little closet door near the entrance to her apartment. Amy looks over her shoulder and watches Rosa for a second before turning her attention on back on the gruesome show in attempt to relax.


	3. A Little Normalcy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It has been little over a week since Amy left Jake. To take her mind off the situation, Rosa decides to treat her to a day of fun and adventure. Amy is starting to feel slightly better, but she knows it's going to take some time for her to recover from this.
> 
> This chapter is full of fluff and cuteness. A nice break from last chapter.

It had been a week since Rosa had rescued Amy from her prison and she had been thankful every single day. Amy knew that Rosa had taken a huge risk, but despite everything stacking up against her, Rosa took her in and gave her a place to stay. Through the day, Amy had watched a lot of television, tended to Arlo every now and then the best she could and ran some errands. There were several places in walking distance and she was able to text Rosa to make sure that Jake was still in the office so she didn’t get caught. The most exciting thing about the day was when Rosa came home in the evening. She normally brought home a bunch of case files for her to go through and it was a great way to take her mind off of everything that happened.

Regardless, it has been good the last week. The two women had fallen into a steady routine and while it was still a blessing, Amy knew this had been a curse as well. She wasn't sure what she felt toward Rosa. Constantly being around someone who was kind and supported her was a change of pace and it made Amy aware that things were starting to get better, though. In time, she will be able to look at herself in the mirror and see the person she loved before things turned to shit, before everything with Jake became a muffled mess and hard to deal with. At least Rosa was there to help her pick up pieces that were left behind.

Today, she was feeling good. She was still tired, and this was mentally draining. There was a constant battle while Amy tried to think logically about it, her heart is coming out unscathed even if it was hard to look at Jake’s pictures on her phone and not think of the same goofy guy she fell in love with in the first place. When Amy looked up from the book she was reading to catch the time, she couldn’t help but smile. Rosa had mentioned before work that they should have a cookout this evening. There was a little cookout grill that the tenets can sometimes use if they want for parties and because it was such a nice, warm evening, grilling could be an option. 

She always trusted Rosa to do most of the cooking when she did, even though she had done some minor help by gathering ingredients. It was fun when they cooked together. Rosa sighed when she approached her apartment door, feeling grateful that she was able to come home for the weekend. At least Amy was home. She had always been a sight for sore eyes, especially since she had been dealing with Jake all damn day. It was hard for her to concentrate, especially having known what was truly going on behind closed doors. Now they can both relax and enjoy themselves this weekend. Rosa had managed to bring home some case files, including a flash drive with the footage from the park manager. 

They had reviewed the evidence earlier in the day, but Rosa really wanted a second opinion from Amy. “Hey, I’m home.” Rosa says as she slips out of her leather jacket and throws it across a nearby bar stool. She smiles at Amy who came to greet her. “How was your day?” Amy asks and she is handed a small, white flash drive. The contents of it were curious and Amy’s eyes widened before looking at Rosa once more. She can only imagine what could possibly be on here, but Rosa had texted her earlier throughout the day telling her what they had found. Now she was going to be able to see it herself. “My day was alright,” replied Rosa as she grabs a couple beers from the refrigerator and leans against the counter for a moment to breathe. “I’m not sure, but I think we have our guy on that footage, but it’s so unnerving to watch him. It’s not the MO of our killer. It’s too hasty… too messy.”

Amy listens to Rosa for a second before taking it over to the laptop they had been sharing. She sticks the flash drive in and loads the shitty, distorted footage onto a media player and watches it all at once. Rosa was correct. The way Rosa had described the killer first, they had been calculating and precise. The man on the footage seemed to be looking over his shoulder in the direction of the treeline as if he was being instructed on how to dispose of the body. Amy should be used to seeing dead bodies by now, but every time she gets to review evidence like this, she cringes at the thought. “You’re right. See how he’s looking over,” Amy points out as she nods to the screen, indicating the treeline. “It’s like he’s waiting to be told what to do.” 

Rosa adored the way Amy immediately submerges herself within a case, even one that isn’t even hers. She must have missed being at work and this allowed Amy to think of something else other than Jake. “This might be an accomplice then?” Rosa asks right before Amy nods her head. It was her assumption at least. Amy leans back against the island in the kitchen as she takes a beer from Rosa and pops the tab. “You don’t think the Butcher is onto you guys do you?” There was a little concern in her tone and Rosa caught it immediately. Although, she wasn’t sure if Amy was scared for her or perhaps Jake. 

Soft brown orbs look over and Rosa freezes when she takes a drink of her own beer. It was right then Rosa figured it was about her and she releases a quiet sigh. “I’m not sure. They might, but I’m sure we just have to be a little more cautious about doing things for now on, you know? Just to be sure.” Amy nods, not feeling confident in the fact that Rosa has to work this case alongside someone she now is going to have issues with. It’s a huge deal to Rosa it seems, so she isn’t going to complain about it or suggest that she gives it to someone else on the squad. Rosa smiles, taking her hand and placing it over top her friend’s. “Don’t worry, okay? You know me. I’ll be fine. Eventually, we’ll put this bastard behind bars and look good doing it.” 

Amy laughs softly, shaking her head, but feeling Rosa’s hand on hers made her heart flutter against her chest. She clears her throat which made the detective pulled her hand away before it made things uncomfortable again. “I’m going to go let Arlo out for a little bit, then we can get started on dinner if you want. Alexa,” Rosa stops and waits for the device on the counter top to light up. “Play Easy Hits.” The little device flashes and repeats back, 'Playing Easy Hits Playlist on Spotify'. It was nice when Can’t Stop The Feeling by Justin Timberlake came on. Rosa starts nodding her head to the beat as she goes to let Arlo from her room. It makes Amy smile to watch her. 

They always did this for dinner. It was their special little routine. The music was relaxing and it calmed Amy’s nerves about the case and Jake. While Rosa took care of Arlo, Amy decided to use the ingredients she gathered from the cabinets earlier. The chicken was already separated and all she really had to do was season them. Seemed easy enough. As she peppers, salts and garlic each of the breasts, she can feel herself feeling better with the music. She is swaying her body, moving to the beat like Rosa was. She had to admit that it was a catchy song and didn’t know that’s the kind of music Rosa liked. Amy didn’t know much about Rosa’s interests aside from classic movies. Tomorrow, maybe she’d get a chance to know more about her if Rosa was willing.

***

When the next morning came, Rosa was the first one up. She had let Arlo out and made coffee around 7am. Apparently, Amy was still asleep on the couch, so she didn’t bother to wake her yet. They weren’t going to do anything significant today until lunch time, so it was good for Amy to get the sleep she deserved. As the Keurig gurgled and worked it’s caffeinated magic, it didn’t take long before Amy began to stir awake on the couch. Rosa didn’t mean to. She winced when she heard a stifled yawn and movement under a giant comforter. With a little smile, Rosa takes a 2nd mug from the cupboard and pours Amy a cup not forgetting that she also liked a splash of milk as creamer.

“Hey.” Amy rubs the sleep out of her eyes as she sits up, feeling a little disoriented upon seeing thin rays sunlight filtering through the blinds. She groans in protest, but the smell of coffee really motivated to sit up properly. Rosa smirks, finding it amusing that Amy’s intolerance to alcohol from last night even after a couple beers proved to be her downfall. At least nothing happened last night. She just kept it at a steady 3 Drink Amy level and all of the dancing wore the girl out just like Rosa figured it would. “Good morning,” Amy says and feels so grateful when the coffee is offered to her. She was rather surprised that Rosa even knew her favorite. Only Jake and Holt really knew or cared to remember.

“Come here you sweet bastard,” she says to the mug of coffee before feeling the warmth in her hands. She closes her eyes for a second, stretching her arms out carefully. Rosa takes a comfortable seat next to her as Arlo comes and lays on the floor in the kitchen. He has come to respect Amy’s space and Rosa is glad for that. Amy probably had several near death experiences because of her allergies, but nothing too severe ever amounted to Arlo being around her. Amy actually enjoyed Arlo’s company whenever Rosa was at work. They had bonded and Amy figures this is the only dog she truly likes except for Cheddar. 

They both sit there and enjoy the coffee, and Rosa notices that Amy was up late going over the evidence from the footage on the flash drive. She didn’t have to do any of this, but Rosa thought maybe it was something Amy couldn’t help but be curious about. “Find anything interesting?” Rosa nods to the open laptop and Amy looks in that direction, blinking her eyes slowly. Amy didn’t know what it was, but she couldn’t help but place the accomplice somewhere. Maybe it had been a perp they had to let go due to lack of evidence in the past? She didn’t know, but his demeanor seemed familiar. 

“Nah,” Amy begins as she takes a generous sip of coffee. “Looks like we’re all back to square one with the interviews. Although, the guy on the video seems familiar. Like we’ve dealt with him before in the past.” Rosa raises a curious brow, finding the possibility intriguing. However, at the moment, she didn’t really know who would be out to get her. She didn’t feel like she had any arch nemesis, but she never really paid any attention to it. “Interesting. When Monday rolls around, I can dig into a little bit more with You-Know-Who.”

“It’s not Voldemort, Rosa. It’s Jake.” Amy said with a little sigh. She shakes her head, chuckling at the name Rosa had dubbed him. She knows Jake has been toxic, but she truly believes he’s not a bad guy. She might be overselling him, though, but because Jake and Rosa are both friends, Amy didn’t want to take sides even if he had abused her. That’s the worst part of it. Even though they’re still married, Jake and Rosa were like siblings and they had more of a bond than Amy ever would with her. They went to the academy together, so she can see how disappointed Rosa is over this Jake mess. She can hear Rosa grunt and shift in her spot when she takes another sip of coffee. 

It took everything in Rosa to not roll her eyes. That was the one downfall Amy had that Rosa didn’t care much for. She was so easily manipulated when it came to Jake. She knows that Amy still loves him and that she would most likely never get over what he had done, but Rosa tried to respect Amy in this situation and give her the amount of space she needed. She didn’t want to cause an unnecessary wedge between them. She keeps her mouth shut, not saying anything so no arguments could break out. Things have been good and she didn’t want to fuck it up.

“Anyway,” said Rosa as she sits her coffee down and pulls her phone off charge nearby. “I was thinking we can go to a little Italian place near the Historical Society. It’s really good and authentic as hell.” Amy was grateful for the subject change and she sighs with relief before giving Rosa her full attention. She hated that every conversation ended up with them arguing over Jake. She knows that Rosa is just trying to help, but her feelings are so deeply rooted in the marriage, it’s kind of hard to just forget. 

She appreciates what Rosa is trying to do though. “That sounds amazing actually.” She gives Rosa a little smile as she begins to fiddle with unkempt strands of hair that laid gently down around her shoulders. “I’ll try to start getting ready. Today should be about us.” No, Rosa thought at Amy’s words. Today should be more about you. She didn’t want the attention. Rosa wanted to shower Amy with as much of it as possible today, but she knows that might not be acceptable in Amy’s eyes. Rosa smiles, only nodding to the woman beside her as she finishes up her coffee. Rosa knew that today was going to be good. They both needed this.

Today was going to be great. Rosa could feel it in her bones. She smiled to herself as she strolled alongside Amy who was gazing at her surroundings. The little Italian place that Rosa mentioned this morning was finally open and they always had good brunch deals. Rosa is surprised to see Amy wearing something more different than she normally sees. During work, Amy was either in her uniform or an outfit comprised of a button up shirt and slacks. But today, she was wearing a summer dress. Mustard yellow with a floral pattern and even matching flats. Amy’s hair was down around her, but more neatly placed. Rosa’s heart skipped a beat when she sees the woman spin around excitedly, pointing out the restaurant they were coming up on.

Rosa had been wearing her normal, leather attire, so it wasn’t anything compared to what Amy was wearing. She hated to wear anything formal, but Rosa always surprised her when Amy had something for every occasion it seemed. It was to be expected. “I’m so hungry. I can smell their food from here.” Amy says as she drags Rosa by the hand who was trying to tag along behind the enthusiastic sergeant. The place was called Fazio’s and had been one of Rosa’s favorites. It was even vegan/gluten friendly despite not having a desire to practice the lifestyle. Amy didn’t seem fazed by it either. 

Her eyes seemed to light up as they walked by the large window that looked out into the busy street and see mounds of chicken marsala being topped with parmesan cheese. When they were able to be seated, Amy had first offered to get a couple drinks for them. It was never too early in Rosa’s opinion - as long as it wasn’t shots. She didn’t feel like carrying a drunk Amy home with her. “Wine or beer would be fine,” said Rosa with a little grin as they sat across from each other at a window seat. She noticed the bruises on Amy’s arms, but they have cleared up since then. They weren’t as dark as they were before, but Rosa could tell Amy covered most of them with makeup. She didn’t want to bring it up, and kept the conversation light because this is what they both needed right now.

The environment was happy and the soothing sounds of Frank Sinatra oozed from the walls of the little Italian place. It screamed Italy from the decor to the people who put their entire heart into the work they loved doing. “This place is amazing,” said Amy as she gazed around at the pictures of famous Italian celebrities hanging on the wall. Two glasses of water came as well as their drinks and Rosa was pleased that the beer she had received was decently priced. She didn’t normally buy alcohol here because she thought it would be expensive, but she was surprised by it and Amy seemed happy with her pink Moscato. They both ordered something different, but decided to half each other’s meals. 

“We can share,” Amy suggested and Rosa looks at her curiously. “Stuffed chicken marsala for me and whatever you order. We half them and exchange. So we both get a taste.” Rosa never thought of doing it like that before, but she obliged anyway, happy to see Amy content with the response. “Gorgonzola with steak tips.” Rosa said as the waiter wrote down their orders. He took both of the menus and nodded his head before handing them a basket of fresh breadsticks. It wasn’t an Olive Garden, but it was still pretty nice for a simple lunch date. Rosa takes a breadstick and breaks it in half before taking a bite out of it.

When the waiter left to fill their orders, Rosa sits back in the booth and tries to relax. Immediately, her mind went straight to the case. Amy had pointed out a lot of things in the past few days and she was steadily going over them in her head. Today, however, she almost had to stop herself from bringing up the case. She knew it would lead to discussing Jake and Rosa simply didn’t want to talk about it. She holds off on that for another time. Right now, she wanted to just enjoy Amy’s company for what they were - - friends. It was amazing how far they’ve come since they had first met. Honestly, they were at opposite ends when they first got to know each other. Amy annoyed her for the most part, but there were times that Rosa felt she was glad to have known her. 

It was a peculiar feeling. She knew when she felt it, though, she had an attraction toward the other woman. “So,” Rosa began which got Amy’s attention quickly. She was thankful for small talk, even though she knew Rosa had a dislike for it. “The Historical Society. The building is awesome from what I’ve seen outside. I’ve even looked it up last night and you’re going to love the library.” Amy smiled, finding herself very compelled by the fact the building had a library. She entertained the idea of what it could possibly look like. She drove by the building many times, but she never had a chance to stop, go in and explore. 

“A library? You know, I’m not even going to ask you to show me now. I’d rather wait. Leave the element of surprise,” she says and gives Rosa a little grin. The waiter came back handing Amy her glass of wine and Rosa her beer. It was a pink moscato that she had ordered and Rosa knew that it was one of Amy’s favorites. They would be skipping out on the hardcore liquor today. Rosa wanted Amy to remember this day, wanted her to have fun and enjoy herself without regret later from drinking. She watches when Amy takes a small sip and melts against the taste. It was so sweet, fruity and lightly carbonated. It could easily pass as grape juice which is a terrible thing in Amy’s case, but she tried to control herself. 

Rosa feels her phone buzzing in her jacket pocket, but she decides to ignore it. She didn’t want to deal with family, work or anyone else for that matter. Right now, she only cared about Amy and that’s how it was going to be. She silences it before taking a long gulp of her beer. “Yeah, I figured you’d like that. I may even learn something, so who knows?” They talked for another half hour before their food arrived. Amy and Rosa both split theirs in half before sliding it off to each other. Now they could try both meals and Rosa had to admit that the chicken marsala was pretty good. She was impressed and she could hear Amy moan at the taste of the dish she ordered. “You have such good taste in food." A little laugh escapes her. It was so nice hearing Amy laugh, and Rosa knew from this point on for the rest of the day - perhaps even week - that Amy was going to come out like a champion that Rosa knew she was. 

The sound of Amy’s laughter was enough to send Rosa’s heart right through her chest. The way she smiles, the way she looks at Rosa with these beautiful doe eyes. They made Rosa feel things she knew she wasn’t supposed to. They ended up talking the rest of dinner about anything and Amy wanted to know more about the Historical Society, but she was keeping questions at a bare minimum. The conversation ranged from music to the types of movies that they enjoyed and the whole thing felt so natural. They both could feel their energies mingling and teasing each other. Amy looked like she was becoming a little spacy, but Rosa had to remind herself that Amy was on her first drink after all. “So you ready to get out of here?” They split the bill down half because Amy refused to have Rosa pay for all of like the detective wanted to. Rosa was stubborn at first, but she caved and said she’d handle the tip money.

Now, it was it was off to the next stop.

The Historical Society was only a few blocks away from the Italian place, so Rosa thought it would be easier and more intimate if they had walked. Amy didn’t seem to mind. Rosa can see her out of the corner of her eyes as she breathed in the city air and smiled at the passersby. She made sure that her motorcycle was okay where she had parked and continued on with Amy in full stride down the street. With their stomachs full and their moods lifted, Rosa was ready for anything today threw out at her. It was an hour or two past lunch, and they only had a little time before their personal tour of the place began. She didn’t tell Amy this, but she had reserved the entire place just themselves.

They had normally opened during the weekdays, but Rosa convinced the ones in charge to help her out with this special case. They had pulled through for her and granted them access for a few hours so Amy could explore and do want she wanted within reason - mostly in the library. For a moment, Rosa didn’t know what to do when Amy had snaked her arm through Rosa’s as they walked. She grunted, seeing how it was tempting to just pull away from the awkward yet friendly gesture. At the apartment, she wouldn’t have minded it but now that they were in public, it almost seemed sinful despite the innocent demeanor Amy had. “Don’t act like I have cooties,” Amy teased and it was impossible to hide how red Rosa had become.

Surely, Amy thought Rosa would have shoved this gesture aside. It was a friendly one, of course and Amy didn't mean anything by it. It was just nice to have contact. Rosa didn’t wear any kind of perfume it seemed. It was a unisex cologne and Amy recognized the woodsy scent with a hint of rain. It was interesting, because it wasn’t musky at all like a man’s cologne would be. It was natural and clean and Amy wondered what brand it had been. “I’m not,” Rosa mumbled as they crossed the busy intersection at the same pace. Clearly, this walk had become far more intimate than she intended. “I’m just not used to it.” Amy laughs softly, but it was muffled by the sound of traffic.

After a short walking distance, the Historical Society building came into view and Amy marveled at how wonderful it was just from the outside. Her eyes light up like neon signs and Rosa could feel Amy coil around her arm with excitement. “Oh my gosh,” she said as they approached the old industrial building. There is an intense wonderment in her eyes and Rosa pushes on the door to let themselves in. “I have the library reserved for us. We can take the tour and you’re free to roam around.”

The first thing Rosa really took notice of when they first walked in was the massive staircase that spiraled up through the building. Amy releases Rosa’s arm and walks forward, glancing up and around at the old pictures hanging all over the walls. Each one told a story and she wanted to know it all. “This is incredible,” said Amy. Their voices echoed in the little hallway which had alerted their tour guide from upstairs. It was a gentleman in his forties, who seemed to be suited up to play some sort of role back in this era. “Good evening, ladies.” He said and grabbed hold of the lining of his petticoat and bowed his head. He knew that they were coming since Rosa recognized his voice. She had talked to him on the phone a few days ago about reserving the library for a couple of hours.

Whatever the price for it, it had been worth it to see Amy the way she is now. Amy felt like she was a kid in a candy store because everywhere she turned, there was something to read, something to learn and absorb. There were a few people visiting other than themselves, but clearly there was a “no trespassing” sign positioned in front of the library door up ahead. Amy peers inside, trying to get a little peek, but Rosa chuckles and pushes her forward softly to keep her moving. “Not yet. We have to do the tour first.” Looking back on it now, Rosa was glad that she was able to do this for Amy. She seemed herself, and genuinely interested and curious about what there was to do and see.


	4. Seeking Comfort

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a fun day hanging out with each other, Amy has a nightmare later that night and Rosa is there to comfort her.

As bored as Rosa became throughout the tour, she did find the place genuinely interesting. She is standing back a little, leaning against a threshold of adjacent hallway as she watches Amy and their tour guide mill around. With her arms across her chest, she is listening to them talk amongst themselves. Ther tour guide is pointing and talking about the industrial architecture, who lived here back in that day and well, the general history of the building. Amy is lit up like a Christmas tree and just seeing that sparkle in her eyes had been worth it to say the least. She wonders if Amy had thought of Jake at all today.

Amy turns to look at Rosa and she beckons the other woman forward, but Rosa declines so she can explore on her own. “This is for you, Ames. I’m perfectly fine right here.” Her friend always portrays herself to be so noble about everything, but Amy is persistent. She smiles, taking Rosa’s hand in hers which causes Rosa’s heart to do a little jump start like the engine of a car battery igniting again. Their tour guide waits for them before heading to the upper floors of the building where a puppeteer show would begin in thirty minutes. Amy is holding Rosa’s hand in hers and she pulls her into a warm embrace.

“Thank you for this,” she says with a smile. Her face is buried within Rosa’s jacket, unable to contain her excitement. “This is one of the most amazing things anyone has ever done for me.” 

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Rosa replies as she takes her fingers through soft strands of Amy’s hair. “You deserve it all.”

The tour guide is looking at them, watching with interest as the two women seemed awfully close. They were obviously close friends, perhaps even sisters, but he assumed that they were dating especially by the way they portrayed themselves in public. Of course, this had been completely misinterpreted. He clears his throat to get their attention and Rosa looks in his direction. “Ladies, if you follow me, our show starts soon. We do have gift certificates for those who donate to our society so we can keep bringing activities like this to people of all ages.”

Amy pulls away from Rosa with a little smile on her face, but she never lets go of the woman’s hand. She is pulled in the direction of the spiraling staircase down the hallway and they ascend to the third floor where there was complimentary cookies and coffee being given to guests. Rosa and Amy decide to get a cup of coffee themselves and take their seats beside two other couples in the audience and a few children. So, other people than Amy likes this sort of stuff? Rosa gazes around the little auditorium and sips her coffee while the puppeteers get ready for showtime. “Isn’t this wonderful?” Amy asks as she leans back in the comfortable folding seat.

She hadn’t thought about Jake in a couple of hours which had been a good first. Rosa’s gesture to this whole thing had made her feel a little easier about things.- at least for the time being until she had to go back to work next week. That was something truly was dreading. She was having fun being off work, spending quality time with Rosa. Amy thought it seemed more like a date because only Jake had done this sort of grand gesture before. She wonders if it’s Rosa’s idea too, but she didn’t want pry on it or ask. “Yeah, this is pretty great actually. I didn’t know they had a puppeteer show.” It seemed that they were getting more than they bargained for and Rosa feels Amy leaning against her when the lights dim.

Once the show had started, they sat there quietly and finished their coffee. The show was about an hour long which was pretty decent and it told more history, especially about the stereotypes and practices about families and caregivers when it comes to taking care of Brooklyn’s sick and needy back in the industrial era. It was quite intense and Rosa learned a lot even if it was from creepy puppets. There was one exhibit she wanted to see before they had taken over the library and it was a LGBTQ+ related one. She was surprised at how progressive the place was and she was sure that Amy would like it as well.

Amy had always been rather progressive and liberal, and she supported Rosa the time she came out. She knows that Amy will never reciprocate her feelings and she has come to accept this, but at least she could show this girl that sexuality isn’t always black and white. Sexuality will forever be fluid. She isn’t hoping for anything to come of it, she just wants to teach Amy about how wonderful the community is even back then, even though it was a lot harder to deal with those who didn’t understand their lives. Seems like a lot of that hasn’t changed much.

Once the show was over, the audience applauded the puppeteer's fine work. Amy quickly scrambled to her feet and headed over to them and began asking questions. It was rather typical of her, but for some reason Rosa still found it amusing. The older woman was really trying her best to keep up with Amy, detailing her answers the best she could. “That’s so fascinating,” Rosa heard Amy which caused the detective to snort a little. For the next half hour, Rosa and Amy explored on their own before they made a loop back to the library. They had been here for several hours already and Rosa wonders how much information can Amy actually store in that brain of hers.

“I’m so excited!” Amy says and claps her hands frantically as they waited outside the library for their tour guide from before. He was going to let them have the reins for the evening. They had two hours before they closed and Rosa wasn’t going to waste any more time. Rosa is smiling, chuckling at how giddy Amy is when the tour guide came around to unlock the chain that is their only blockade into the library that was more impressive than Rosa first thought. She saw the pictures online, but they didn’t give this place any justice. “Oh my god,” said Amy as she runs through most of the shelves, and even admired an old printing process from the 1800s that was roped off and only for show.

The tour guide left them to do as they pleased, trusting that the nerdy one was responsible enough to keep the library in tip-top shape the way it was before they came in. Rosa wanders aimlessly, trailing her hands among some of the older encyclopedias. Some of these much older books were some of the first documents that Brooklyn even saved. She looks through the shelf, spying Amy over at one of the old newspaper archive machines. She is spinning the dial, going over pages from newspapers dating back to the 1890s. Amy is grinning to herself, running her hand over the glass protector. She had never seen a library so grand before and she was glad she was able to spend time with Rosa, too. 

“Hey Rosa, come over here.” Amy said and waved the other woman over. Rosa took in a little breath and made her way over and stood beside Amy a 19th century projection booth. Amy is scrolling through a compiled video of some of the earliest footage of New York City back in the 1900s. It was a ten minute video and the two girls slide into the booth together and Amy presses play when she chooses the film she desired to watch. When the screen came on, it was very old, very distorted black and white footage of New York. There were places that were very recognizable, but from the video it looked like NYC hasn’t really changed all that much except in technology. 

Rosa leans against the small wall that made up the projection booth, slouching backwards to get some kind of comfort. She is glad Amy is enjoying herself, but Rosa knows there’s still a long way to go. She is thinking about what’s going to happen when Amy has to go back to work and how she’s going to deal with Jake. Maybe she will confront him head on about this issue before Amy has to go back? “Isn’t this compelling, Rosa?” Amy asks as she turns her head for only a second to look at Rosa who seemed lost in thought. She wonders if Rosa is thinking about the film they’re watching or maybe it was about something else entirely. 

The look on Rosa’s face clearly says otherwise. Amy tucks a few strands of hair behind her ear before glancing to Rosa’s hands in her lap. It was just a friendly gesture right? Friends hold hands for comfort. Whatever was on Rosa’s mind right now, Amy was sure it was going to eat her alive until she found something else to distract her. Amy sighs, deciding to reach a hand over and slips it comfortably into Rosa’s. This move did the trick. Rosa is looking at Amy with this look of astonishment on her face. She can feel the heat rise on the back of her neck and it took every ounce of strength in Rosa to not retract her hand away.

Spending time in the library with Amy had been more than interesting and well, Rosa wasn’t going to deny that had learned a few things. Amy’s heart is filled with joy as the two exit the Historical Society and the sun was steadily going behind the tall skyscrapers. It was around 10pm. Their hands were still locked tightly to one another, and Rosa stands there listening to Amy’s favorite part of the building. Rosa sticks her free hand in the pocket of her leather jacket and she smirks to herself, glad to see that their day had been successful. “I’m so exhausted,” said Amy as she leaned into Rosa as they walked the streets back toward the little Italian place. 

“You didn’t have to do any of this for me. We could have stayed home and watched movies.” Amy looks up at a very stoic Rosa. She is very fortunate to have someone like her in her life who is able to be there for her when she needs it. Having a friend like Rosa is hard to come by and she wouldn’t do anything ruin this friendship they had built up over the years. “I wanted to.. You’ve been cooped up after everything that happened, so I thought it would be nice to get out.” Amy is giving Rosa an appreciative smile before she lays her head back down on her shoulder.

• • •

Later that night, Rosa is lying there in bed with her eyes wide open. She is scrolling through pictures of selfies from yesterday’s little outing with Amy. She had a smile that could light up the entire world. A small sigh is released when she turns on her side. There’s no way she can get to sleep even though Amy is probably passed out by now on the couch. They had an exhausting day, but it was filled with laughter and fun. She knows that Amy is struggling internally, but she appreciates that Amy enjoying herself. Things were quiet throughout the apartment except for the normal sounds of the rooms settling.

Arlo was asleep on the floor by the bed, being an ever so loyal guard dog. Rosa attempts to close her eyes. Tomorrow would be a relaxing day. Maybe she can take Amy for a ride on her motorcycle through some of the gorgeous parks outside New York? She knew Amy wanted to go for a ride eventually, so Sunday would be a perfect choice after they slept in a little bit. It sounded pretty appealing. As she tried to get her brain to relax, something made her bolt straight up in bed. Arlo is on his feet when he hears panic coming from the living room. “Amy,” she says and throws the covers off her quickly.

Instinctively, Rosa has her pistol in her hands, thinking it might be a break in, but when she enters the living room, she sees Amy kicking and screaming in her sleep. “Ames.” Rosa places her gun down on the little table in the hallway and hastily gets to Amy’s side. Clearly, Amy is having a nightmare and is in fight or flight mode. Her eyes are screwed shut and she is yelling at someone to stop. “Amy!” Rosa says as she tries to hold her hands to steady the woman who flailing around. “Come on, Amy. Wake up!” Arlo is standing nearby and he was equally worried. He is whining over the whole thing as he lays his head down on the coffee table. 

“No!” Amy shouts. Rosa immediately sees Amy’s hand curl into a fist and it comes flying in her direction. Fortunately, Rosa was able to dodge it with good timing. Amy managed to get a couple of good whacks in, but this was nothing to worry about. “Get away from me!” Amy yells again and she begins sobbing uncontrollably. There was no way to snap her out of it. The only thing Rosa can do is be there for her when she wakes up from it on her own, but until then, Amy is forced to go through this nightmare on her own. Rosa has Amy close to her chest now. This was something Rosa has never experienced before with anyone. She doesn’t know how to comfort Amy. “Jake…” She can hear Amy mumble his name and tears roll down her cheeks.

This far more troubling than what Rosa expected. All she feels is anger toward Jake and sorrow whenever she looks at Amy. These feelings should never mingle. After another ten minutes, Amy is fully conscious now and she is confused and startled about where she is. “Hey,” said Rosa softly as she releases Amy when she pulls away. “Are you okay?” Did she look okay? No, but Rosa wasn’t going to let this hang in the air. “You were having a nightmare.” Amy is unsure of the situation, but she notices the light marks on Rosa. Did she do those? “Rosa….” she whispers and when it finally hits her that this happened, she begins to have a mental breakdown. 

Amy places her face in her hands and begins to sob. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean…” There is snot coming from Amy’s nose and this prompts Rosa to get a box of tissues from the kitchen. She hands Amy a few before she is pulled into an embrace again. Amy cries into her chest, and all Rosa could do was hold her. “It’s okay, shhh.” Rosa says. She can feel slobber and snot all over her shirt, but that comes with the territory. Amy is held there for several silent minutes, and Rosa can feel how fast the girl’s heart is beating. “Wanna tell me about the nightmare?”

Whenever you have a nightmare like this, it was almost impossible to describe to another person, let alone try to relive it in detail. Amy swallows, and gets herself somewhat together before she looks at Rosa. “No,” she says simply and leans back into the couch with this grim, bleak expression. “I can’t.” Rosa nods her head as Arlo comes around the little table and lays his head between Amy and Rosa on the couch. Amy reaches down to pet Arlo, who was now glued to the woman’s hip and won’t budge from this spot. 

“You can tell me anytime you want,” said Rosa. She wasn’t sure if she should stand and get back to bed, or wait here with Amy until she fell back asleep again. Rosa was always willing to stay with people after a panic attack. Not experiencing one like this herself before, Rosa can’t imagine they’re fun. Amy wipes the tears from her cheeks with the back of her hand and Rosa retrieves a bottle of water from the fridge and offered it to her. Amy takes the water with a small thank you. As Amy sits there, she sips the water slowly and tries to gather enough courage to tell Rosa what happened. Amy wants to tell someone about it, because she knows if she doesn’t, these feelings are just going to build up from there.

For right now, Rosa’s quickened heartbeat has slowed down. Her adrenaline level was through the roof and she wasn’t going to deny that she was ready to go into some kind of action to protect Amy and her dog. “I had a nightmare about him,” Amy finally said and Rosa can feel her shrinking against the couch. After she wraps an arm around Amy to comfort her, she begins to listen intently to every detail. This nightmare was horrific and it was hard to believe the nature of it. The more Amy talked about it, Rosa could see how emotional she was getting. “I’m so sorry I hurt you,” said Amy as she reached up to touch the fresh cut on Rosa’s cheek. To be honest, Rosa didn’t even feel it. 

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I can stay here for a bit until you fall asleep.” Rosa suggests and Amy shakes her head. She doesn’t think that she’s going to be getting sleep after experiencing something like that. It had been a while since she had a nightmare like this. The first time it happened was when the abuse first started, but back then she didn’t have Rosa to comfort her and give her this feeling of security. “I don’t think I’ll be sleeping.” Rosa sighs at her words but then grabs the remote on the table nearby and turns Netflix on. She takes the blankets and wraps them up around the two of them and Arlo lays at their feet. 

Rosa doesn’t know how Amy is going to deal with going back to work next week. It was going to be difficult, and this wasn’t nearly enough time to get anything done. They don’t even have a plan in order yet because she was allowing Amy to adjust to her apartment and sleeping arrangements. She’s going to have to call Terry tomorrow and explain to him what’s going on. She knows Amy is going to be pissed at her for it, but they need help and Rosa doesn’t know the first thing to do in these situations. Obviously, it wasn’t like Terry was going to know either, but someone else had to know other than them.

Terry was their best choice because he was hard on everyone. He didn’t become soft like Holt did when he was around Jake. Rosa couldn’t trust Holt on any of this and she knew that if they went to tell him, things would only backfire. It was their word against Jake’s and she knows they will never win over anything like that. Jake was too well-loved in the precinct, so Rosa only hoped that Terry would have some kind of sense, maybe even believe them and that he would come to aid them in these desperate times. “You can put anything on,” said Amy as she buries her face in her hands again to try and keep herself from crying. 

It was hard to watch her, but Rosa puts some animated children’s movie to lighten the mood. She had a soft spot for them despite her love for horror and gore, but she didn’t think that Amy needed that now. She was playing Hotel Transylvania and Rosa decides to leave Amy only briefly to pop some popcorn. Amy became really quiet throughout the movie, and it was hard for her to enjoy something so cute when her mind is constantly being hounded by the same scenes from her nightmare. It was nearly impossible to put it on pause. She takes some popcorn and munches around on it, feeling slightly better with something on her stomach. 

“Thank you, Rosa. For staying up with me,” she mumbled softly and adjusts the blanket around her. 

“I’m always here for you, and you should know that, Ames.” Rosa nods her head. Hopefully Amy did understand that if there was anything she needed, Rosa would be there for her. Amy wasn’t going to deny that it was a nice feeling being looked after like this. For her entire life, she always had to look after herself, so when Jake entered her life, she knew she was able to let her guard down a little. In the beginning, he allowed her to be herself, to feel vulnerable yet safe, but never in a million years did she think things would escalate to this moment in her life. “I blocked Jake’s number for the time being. Every time he sent me a text, I felt an urge to go back.” 

Rosa looks at her, shaking her head in disbelief. “Don’t you dare go back. Not after what he’s done.” Rosa’s tone was serious, almost angry but Amy knows it’s directed toward Jake - or at least she hoped. “We’ll deal with him in time, Amy.” The Sergeant nods her head a little, understanding that they need to bide their time in all of this. They have no evidence that Jake is being the way he is so all of this can go unattended and can be completely ignored for months to come. Amy understands this, but how are they going to convince someone in the Nine-Nine that Jake isn’t who he seems to be?


	5. This, I Promise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While Rosa attempts to work with Jake on the case, they find a new lead that Amy helps Rosa with on her own time. Amy is still struggling with her feelings toward Jake, but Rosa makes a stern promise that she's going to keep no matter what.
> 
> Also some cute fluff between Rosa and Amy.

With everything that has happened so far, Rosa is surprised that she is even functioning properly. There hasn’t been much to think about other than Amy and what to do to make this situation she was in a little better. Rosa knows there’s nothing she can do except be there for her. She had persuaded Captain Holt discretely about offering a few more days to Amy’s vacation leave, but she wasn’t sure if he was more shocked or disappointed. To this day, Rosa thought it was almost impossible to read that man. His emotions were pretty elusive.

After the incident with the nightmare, things have slowly gotten worse. Amy hasn’t really spoken to her much and has become a total recluse even at the apartment. Rosa wants to help, but she fears that she may end up making things so much more painful for Amy to go through. Rosa stands at the coffee machine in the break room, waiting for a fresh pot to be made. She knows she needs to focus on the murder case, but she is half tempted to hand the case back to Major Crimes. In her opinion, Amy was much more of a priority than a case that would just make the department look good if they caught the dude, but she knew Amy wouldn’t allow her. 

This was too important to just give up and not try to solve it for those women that were slaughtered like they were some cheap slabs of meat hanging on hooks. Mentally, Rosa gave her a little bit of a pep talk in her head, telling herself that she needed to crack down and try to find some sort of evidence that points them in the right direction again. Maybe she needed to go scour Prospect Park again? Maybe there was something left behind that forensics missed? Another possibility is that the autopsy reports can be double checked. No one can do this much harm to society and get away with killing these many people. 

There’s got to be something that their killer left behind even if it’s the smallest trace of evidence. “Hello, Rosa.” said a voice that arrived behind her. She turned her head seeing Terry who had come through the door looking lethargic himself. He must have been exhausted and came for the same thing she was after when he began to smell the aroma of fresh coffee floating through the office. “Oh, hi Sarge.” The coffee was done in minutes, so Rosa fills her mug and sits down at the table for only a moment to wrap her mind around everything. Terry is looking over at her as he pours himself a cup, immediately noting her demeanor.

“Everything okay?” He asks.

“I suppose,” replied Rosa as she takes a sip of coffee.

Terry sits down across from her. He wonders if it had anything to do with the case everyone knows that she’s been working on with Peralta. “How’s that case coming?” He asks casually.

“It’s coming. I’m thinking of dragging Peralta to Prospect Park with me this evening once I brief everything with Captain Holt. How does one killer get away with so many things?”

“Well, most likely they have other people doing their dirty work for them. The killer sounds manipulative, clean, and extremely organized.” Terry didn’t like the idea of Rosa submerging herself in this case for too long. It’s been months and she keeps somehow operating at a normal rate and level, but Terry can see the look in her eyes and knows that she will eventually crash sooner or later. Whenever Rosa took a case, she always saw it through no matter the cost of her own health and safety. That’s just how the woman was.

“Well, I found something on some of the footage that was interesting.” She pulls out her department phone, showing Terry the footage from the flash drive she had downloaded onto it a few nights ago when she was working the case with Amy on her own time. “You’re not supposed to have a video like that on these phones. They’re for emailing, calling and texting officers and personnel.” Rosa simply looks at him with an annoyed expression on her face. She was wanting advice, yet he had to go and say this. At least she was right to assume that he didn’t play favorites with any of his coworkers. 

Regardless, Terry watches the footage and finds it interesting. It was the one where Amy spotted the man who glanced over toward the treeline in hopes of getting some sort of direction from someone else. “How long ago was this footage?” Terry asked.

“Maybe a week or two. I want to go over there myself before Holt sends a team to investigate. If there’s evidence there I can find, I don’t want them stomping around over there, fucking everything up.” Rosa explains. She sits back in the uncomfortable chair, taking a long sip of her coffee before sighing. “Also, Terry.. Can I run something by you?” She sits her mug down, and stands before walking over toward the break room door to close it. She wanted a little more privacy in case someone was eavesdropping. “I have a personal issue I need to ask you.”

“I’m all ears Rosa. You know you can talk to me about anything.” Terry watches as her expression changes from stoic to more concerned one. There is something on her mind that she wants to get off her chest. 

How was she going to tell Terry about everything that’s been going on behind closed doors? He was a good guy to talk to with these things, but even if he was… it was still Jake and Amy. Two people everyone cared deeply about. To find out one of your good friends has been doing these terrible things to another person you care about is going to light a fire under his ass so hot, she didn’t know how well he’s going to take it - or if he’s even going to believe her. She decided to tell him in a different way, which had been a lot more vague.

“I have a friend that has been going through some problems with her husband and things have escalated pretty quickly. I got her out of a tight situation and she’s living with me for now. Thing is I’m really good friends with her husband too, and I don’t know how to handle this. He has abused her in every which way, Terry.” Rosa takes a deep breath before she sits back down and she sees how Terry’s eyes looked like they were full of sorrow and he didn’t even know who she was talking about. He was always so sensitive and being a family man himself, he was sure to have some kind of advice.

“I’m sorry that your friend is going through these things, but is there real evidence that he’s been doing these things? You can’t get anything done if there’s no evidence. I hate to say that, but it’s how things go if she’s wanting to prosecute him. It’s not easy with these domestic violence cases, Rosa.” He was being honest at least. Rosa sighs, and shakes her head at his question. Other than the bruises and traumatic state Amy is in currently, there was hardly any evidence. Maybe Rosa should have taken pictures of the bruises when she first saw them. By now, they would have faded on Amy’s arms. 

“She’s not wanting to prosecute him. That’s the issue,” said Rosa with a stern tone. “She still loves him, but she’s terrified. What do I do, Terry?”

“There’s not much you can do except be there for your friend when she needs you. You’re already doing that because you’re allowing her to live with you. That’s a lot more than anyone can do for someone is to get them out. You’re a good friend, Rosa.” Terry gives her a little smile and takes a drink of his coffee. He can’t imagine having to do something like that to Sharon or anyone he loved. He was a lover, not a fighter and domestic violence cases were some of the hardest things to deal with when it comes to being a cop. “She can try to prosecute him, but I know how fucked up the system is.”

“Especially if they work for the same law office,” Rosa says casually. She didn’t want to come out and say they were both cops, because that might be the one thing that tips Terry off, but having them be portrayed by two defense attorneys might be a better, much more safer cover for Amy. “Oh, a couple of DAs? Oof. That’s a hard one for sure.”

“Yeah” Rosa nods her head with a sullen expression on her face. “I figure that it would be her word against his, since it’s a male-dominated field and he’s pretty well-known. It would ruin her reputation if goes through it.” They sat there and talked through their break time for another ten minutes and Rosa felt better, even if nothing was really accomplished out of talking with Terry. She only knew for certain that what she did that night she found out was the best solution for Amy and that was to get out of there as quickly as possible. “Thanks for all of the advice, Terry.”

•••

Prospect Park was one of the most popular destinations in Brooklyn aside from the bridge. Many people loved going out and about to enjoy their day by the duck pond or play frisbee out in one of the lush fields that dotted the city. Rosa was here for another reason. She was going to find the exact location in this huge park where this guy was the day the video was taken. Jake had been with her, but she has decided to keep conversation strictly about work. If Rosa wanted to, she would have broken every single bone in Jake’s body, but she restrains herself from physical violence as much as possible no matter how appealing it sounded.

“Hey Jake, over here.” Rosa says and she waves him over. The other detective comes running in hopes of a new lead being discovered. “I think this is the spot. See the treeline?” She points to her video on her phone and then over to the treeline that was a few yards away from them. They search the surrounding area, looking for anything that seemed even a little out of place or disturbed. “Shouldn’t we report this?” Jake asks as he looks through a few of the garbage containers nearby for anything important that might have been disposed of. 

“No. I’m not reporting anything until my hunch about the guy in the video is true. I’m not going to cause a scene when there might be nothing at all.” Rosa’s tone felt sharp and venomous whenever she spoke to Jake. For the entire day, he felt like he had done everything wrong or at least Rosa was never satisfied with him being a secondary. He knows that he has slacked off, but there really wasn’t much to do until there was evidence. Jake wants to ask if she has a problem with him being on the case, but he keeps quiet. Maybe for the rest of the time here at the park, he will just do as she says and he won’t get his eyes clawed out later.

While Jake searches in one location of the treeline, Rosa searches the other. She is crouched down, running her gloved hand through mulch material that had been recently placed there. The ground did feel a little different, like something had been dug, but there she wasn’t sure if she had done the digging herself. If she put in a request for a GPR system then Captain Holt would want to wonder why. Her plans for this entire case would be foiled if she had done that and she liked doing things on her own if she could. She erects herself and bounces on the balls of her feet to check the stability of the earth. Something definitely had been disturbed here underneath the fresh mulch.

Rosa looks over her shoulder, spying the security camera that caught their suspect in the act of doing something possibly criminal. He really looked like he was disposing of something. Curiously, she runs her hands up underneath some of the mulch and pulls back the material to reveal what’s underneath. A plastic bag had been put in place there where clearly earth should have been. She didn’t think most parks did this. “Hey Rosa. I think I found something.” Jake said as he pops his head out of one of the large dumpsters near the bathroom facilities. She looks over when she sees Jake heading her way with some kind of flyer in her hand. It was a flyer for some kind of rave that was happening next week. 

“Turn it over, there’s weird drawings on the other side.” Jake points out and Rosa flips the flyer over to see that he was right. There were little symbols scribbled in code. She didn’t know if it had anything to do with their suspect because she didn’t see him throw anything away. The dumpster was off camera, so there wasn’t a way of knowing. “I wonder what the mean.” Rosa isn’t listening to him. She is trying to figure out what exactly the origin of these symbols are. “Ooh! Do you think it’s like a copycat of the Zodiac Killer?” Jake asks curious as he glances around the area for any sign of abnormalities. 

“I don’t know,” said Rosa simply. She takes the flyer, folds it and keeps it for herself. Due to her current mood, she doesn’t even want to entertain Jake’s theories of who it was or what the symbols meant. She needed to get to the bottom of this quickly. She’ll come back another day without Jake. He seemed pretty nonchalant about everything that is going on with Amy. He hasn’t asked if she had talked to Amy recently, so he might not feel all too concerned either. It irked Rosa to no end in sight that he didn’t even have the audacity. Rosa knows she wouldn’t have told him anything regardless, but it would have been nice to see Jake even a little bit concerned for Amy. However, he is not in the slightest.

“We’ll have to come back another day to search the area more thoroughly.” Rosa wished she had her own GPR system so she could come out her on her own time to do this. Things would have been so much more easier, but those things are expensive and there wasn’t enough time to shop for one. So, for right now, Rosa was going on natural gut instinct alone. She knew something was not right about this area and she was going to find out why. To come up with the origin of these symbols, she’s going to have to get Amy’s opinion on them. Being a history nerd, she was good at doing that. She may recognize some of the symbols.

•••

Amy had been staying at Rosa’s now for two weeks. She’s had her ups and downs, but she is thankful that Rosa has been around every time she crashed. Since her nightmare, things have gotten steadily worse with time and she can feel a slight shift in her behavior but proceeds to ignore it entirely. She knows the next time she sees Jake, he is going to possibly ring her neck if she gave him a chance. He’s going to wonder what was such an emergency that she had to stay at her parents for two weeks. Every now and then, Amy had an urge to contact him, but Rosa was there to stop her. She had just climbed out of it… what is she doing trying to bury herself back up underneath that?

Taking a deep breath and exhaling, Amy lays her head down on Rosa’s bed. She has been sleeping next to Rosa for the last two nights because there was no possible way for her unless she knew someone was there next to her. Most nights she couldn’t sleep and if she did, it wasn’t for very long. Amy rolls onto her stomach, playing Kwazy Cupcakes on her phone to pass time. She finally made through Sprinkle City to Icing Mountain. What a pointless game, but at least it kept her mind busy. Rosa should be coming home from work any time soon, so at least that was something. She missed having Rosa here now that she has become used to living like this. 

An hour or two have passed and Amy resulted into bingeing a movie of some kind. Seemed to be a rom-com that was an attempt to help her relax and smile a little if possible. She is sitting comfortably on the couch with a giant comforter wrapped around herself. A bowl of popcorn is sitting beside her and she munches around as she watches with Arlo nearby. Her allergies have been acting up, so she has tried her best to tend to him the best she can without sneezing so much. There was a couple boxes of tissues nearby just in case that happened.

When keys are heard unlocking the door, she can hear Rosa's familiar groans of frustration. She smiles for the first time since Rosa left this morning when she peers over her shoulder and sees the woman playing with Arlo. "Hey Ames," she said as she heads to the fridge to grab a beer. She takes her sunglasses off and lays them on the counter before slipping out of her jacket. "How's your day been?” Rosa asks with a little smile and heads over toward the couch with Arlo who excitedly hops up in her lap as big as he is. “Goddammit, Arlo… you weirdo.” The pooch is wagging his tail and stretches his front legs across her lap. Amy can clearly see how much the two are bonded together and it makes her happy.

“Things are okay. It’s been lazy. Hope you don’t mind that I tidied up a little.” 

Amy didn’t have to do that, but Rosa didn’t mind it at all. She allows her back to sink into the couch for a few moments and glances up to the television. Amy was watching a rom-com. Rosa didn’t care for them, but she didn’t speak out against it. It was one of the better ones at least. “That’s alright. I don’t mind. I should probably clean the apartment a little bit. It’s been exhausting at work, but I think I might have found something.” She reaches into her back pocket to pull out the folded flyer Jake had actually found, but she wasn’t going to mention his name. “There’s symbols on the back of it and it seems to be in code.”

This is what Amy was wanting; more of the case to explore and decode. She smiles reading the front of the flyer first before inspecting the symbols. “The rave seems fun actually,” she comments quietly before running her finger along the symbols. They did seem familiar to her. Like she had seen them in some kind of historical documentary about the Aztec culture. “It looks like Nahuatl to me. The symbols are animals. See the dog and crocodile? The dog is the 10th day and the crocodile is the 16th.” It appeared to be scribbled down quickly, so Rosa didn’t see it the first time, but when Amy pointed it out, it eerily formed those two animals almost instantly. “Nahuatl used animals for describing the days of a 260-day calendar.”

Amy reads on further, noticing more glyphs that portrayed to be numbers. “I think this message is describing a date,” her facial expression changed subtly from interested to a more concerned one, “maybe when the next killing will happen?” Amy keeps the flyer on hand for a while, going over the details in the glyphs. Rosa is always so impressed with Amy’s findings, but she wonders why this killer is using glyphs to send messages - if this is the work of a new MO. Terry has often said that sometimes MOs change, and out of the twenty women that were killed this is the first time they’ve found this type of evidence at a possible crime scene.

The front of the flyer that had information about the rave being held was interesting. It was an Aztec themed bar conveniently enough and Rosa wonders if that’s where their killer usually hangs out. “Can you decipher it?” Rosa asks, hoping that if Amy knew anything about the Aztec culture, she would know the symbols.Amy looks over, shrugging her shoulders. It has been ages since she has looked at anything like this, so she is going to need a few books from the library to do a bit of research. “Possibly. If anything, we might be able to catch the guy that was on the video there.” Rosa knew that the serial killer going around has put the entire city into panic mode, but these ravers are strong-willed folk who won’t let someone like that ruin their nightly fun.

•••  
Rosa has done what Amy asked of her. She had gone to the library that evening and picked up several different books on Aztec culture and one that depicted of nothing but of symbols and their meanings. She wonders why the killer had gone this route. Were they descendents of the great Aztec rulers or common folk? Perhaps they just had interest in it and used it to be a copycat killer like Jake theorized. Maybe they just used it to fuck with Rosa because she was simply catching up to them. “As long as Amy can figure this out, we’re set.” Rosa doesn’t want to go to Holt with any of this yet. She is doing this on her own, hoping to find information first.

If she went to Holt now, he would send an entire team to investigate the area which would put their suspect up in arms over it and thus once again, change how they do things. This needed to be done delicately so she can catch them on her own. She will call the backup when she needs it, but until then… it’s a solo mission that was possibly suicidal. They were sitting at the kitchen with a couple cups of coffee, staying up late and reading books about Ancient Aztecs. Rosa found it genuinely interesting, but she has let Amy completely take over the case. She wasn’t sure if that was a good idea or not, but Amy has helped far more than anyone else has.

“Next month on the tenth,” Amy mumbled as she scrolls down one of the pages indicating the meaning of the little dots. The animals represented days and with the dog meaning ten, that’s what she had come up with. She had to do some reading, but Rosa went on to make dinner. She supposed it was good of Amy to have something to focus on other than Jake, but she didn’t want Amy to get sucked into this case like she has been the last few months of it. This case will swallow you whole and it has become even more intriguing now because of these Aztec codes. “I have a feeling you’re dealing with a Zodiac copycat.” Amy read about the Zodiac many times. About how he had relentlessly fucked with the police by putting his own coding in newspapers.

Eventually, that’s how he was caught in the end, but the man had went on to be one of the most notorious the world has ever seen in recent decades. “You think there’s going to be more of these codes?” Amy nods as she points to the little infinity symbol down at the bottom of the right-hand corner of the page. “Seems like it. The infinity symbol definitely means there’s going to be more or at least a continuation. It’s so subtle, yet meaningful.” Amy takes a sip of coffee and she looks over at her phone when it lights up. It had been Jake’s mother of all people texting her. Rosa had her back turned to Amy while she cooks, so she is unaware of this. 

“We’ll have to keep our eyes peeled,” said Amy as she reads the text quietly to herself. It was about Jake. His mother explains how terrible he is doing without her around and immediately Amy feels guilty about it. She had blocked Jake’s number a week ago and hasn’t had any contact with him, but he’s now getting family to do it for him? He must be really sorry or really desperate. She knows Jake’s mother has seen that she read the text, but Amy doesn’t reply back even though it’s in the back of her mind now. Was Jake doing bad without her? He was the one that drove her away in the end and she knows that his mother has no clue what her son has been doing. 

She closes her eyes for a second to breathe. No, she won’t fall back in line with that. Rosa was right to take her from that situation and she wasn’t about to go back. Her heart aches to think about it, but she is trying to stay persistent and diligent. Her recovery was not over yet even if the physical evidence had been long gone. The mental state of her mind was fragile and seeing these texts from Jake’s mother is only putting pressure on the walls of her own mental foundation. As much as Amy misses work and her colleagues, she no longer has a desire to be at the precinct. It’s too much to know Jake would be around any corner to bully her into going back to him. 

“You okay, Ames?” Rosa asks as she deals with the pasta she was making. They were have homemade spaghetti carbonara, something that Rosa suggested since they had been living on chicken the past few nights. They needed something different. 

“Oh, I’m fine. I was just thinking about the symbols.” She hated lying to Rosa about what was going on, but sometimes Rosa was very opinionated especially nowadays. Amy adored Rosa for always standing up for her, but she can come off intimidating to most when Amy saw her as the complete opposite. Once dinner was done, Rosa put on some quiet, jazzy tunes through the Alexa and they ate together at the counter. They talked about the case mostly, but they also talked about other things too. Rosa has opened up to Amy about her interests which had surprised her to say the least. “I didn’t know you lived in those places.” Amy said as they talked about travelling.

“Yeah. I’ve been all over. Brooklyn will forever be my home, though. Can’t seem to ever get away from this city, but I don’t think I have it in me to.” Rosa’s eyes flicker up from her plate and they catch Amy’s for a second. Rosa wouldn’t want to live anywhere else. Truth be known, she wanted to stay where Amy was, and has kept that to herself as a quiet vow to protect her. Maybe she and Amy could take a vacation like that one of these days once everything is better or somewhat better for them both. 

The two help each other clean up the kitchen and Amy is putting away the library books for another day of research. It was very late and Rosa needed to get to bed soon. “That was delicious, Rosa. You’re an incredible cook. I could use the practice myself, but I’m partial to your cooking.” Rosa smiles at the compliment, taking them much easier these days especially if they were from Amy. She watches the woman straighten up the living area and kitchen. “Thanks. I take pride in my cooking. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Rosa said as she places dirty dishes in the sink to soak overnight. She will get to them tomorrow, but right now she is exhausted from work and needed sleep.

“I think I’m going to turn in early. You can come to bed if you want.” Rosa says, and Amy smiles when she notices the light shade of pink on the other woman’s cheeks. For a long time, Amy always thought Rosa hated sleeping with other people. Actual _**sleeping**_. Not having sexual encounters with. The simple act of sleeping and laying next to each other throughout the night, but she had been wrong. Rosa was like any other human that desired the same contact as anyone else did. They have cuddled before, but it was days after Amy had that nightmare. She couldn’t get to sleep without someone beside her, and she was always thankful for Rosa when she was. “I’ll be there in a little bit. I’m going to stay up. Goodnight, Rosa.” Rosa nods her head and heads into the bedroom with Arlo tagging along behind her.

Amy stays up for another hour, debating on texting Jake’s mother. In the end, she decides she doesn’t all because she knew nothing good will ever come of it. Using your own mother to manipulate you to return home was one of the poorest excuses for a man to make. She knows Jake loves her, but this wasn’t how he should go about it. He needs to give her space, but that was going to be difficult. Quietly, she opens up the door to Rosa’s room and Arlo lifts his head. She places a finger to her lips because she can hear Rosa sleeping. She passed out that quickly. 

She slips into the covers on her designated side and pulls them up around her face. The scent of Rosa was evident and for some reason, it makes her feel calm and safe. Rosa’s facing her with her eyes closed, and Amy smiles through the darkness of the bedroom and attempts to scooch closer. The soft movements wake Rosa, and she stifles a little yawn before opening one eye. “Hey,” she says softly. Amy is fortunate to have a friend like her. Someone this loyal and this forgiving. Amy feels like she doesn’t deserve her. “Hey,” Amy replies and adjusts to get comfortable. “Rosa, can I ask you something?”

With her eyes closed again, Rosa slowly nods her head. She is too sleepy to open them, but she is listening to Amy when she speaks. “Can you promise me that you won’t let me go back to Jake? Do whatever you have to.” Rosa gains enough strength to open her eyes. She can barely see Amy’s expression through the darkness, but something tells her that the girl isn’t as happy as she was earlier. Rosa raises a hand and strokes Amy’s cheek, feeling a stray tear falling, but due to the way Amy is laying, it’s trying to fall across the bridge of her nose. “Of course, Amy. There’s no way in hell or high water I’m going to let him hurt you all over again. You’re my best friend, and I’m going to protect you. This, I promise.”


	6. Unravelling Thread

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy goes back to work after three weeks of being off, but things aren't looking good when she faces Jake the first time since her last confrontation with him. An escalating argument breaks out in the evidence room between Jake and Rosa.
> 
> Terry and Rosa team up in order to find some kind of evidence that Jake has been abusive to Amy in order to prove to Holt that these accusations are serious.

They had prolonged the waiting as much as they could, but this was the day that Amy was supposed to go back to work. Rosa doesn’t know what Amy is thinking, but there is clear anxiety written all over the woman’s face. She didn’t know how to ease it, to make this morning go smoother. Rosa had done everything she could think of to make sure Amy felt comfortable enough to take on this day. Rosa sits there on her bed, going through text messages from Jake who was already there.

Rosa had to be smart about this, about what would happen when Jake and Amy cross paths again. She knows that Jake wouldn’t do anything in front of their peers, but due to Amy’s absence, she knows he’ll have more than a few bones to pick with her. Rosa needs to be able to keep an eye on Amy, make sure she is okay throughout the day even if that seems a little overbearing. “We can try to convince Holt to add in a few more days to your leave from mine,” suggested Rosa.

She looks up at Amy who was adjusting the collar of her uniform, trying to maintain her professional standards. It feels weird being in it even though this uniform was a symbol of honor and she was usually pretty proud to wear it. Now, despite all that she has accomplished to become a Sergeant, seems pretty meaningless in her heart. She didn’t have that same spark in her eyes, nor did she feel the joy and passion that was her career. It was a dark void and Rosa could see that. “It’s not a big deal, Rosa. I’m fine.”Amy’s tone was a clear indicator that she was not fine by any means.

“Eventually, I would have to face him. I know it’s not going to be pretty and it’s going to be awkward, but I think I can manage one day.”

Rosa leans back in the bed, propping herself up with her elbows as she watches Amy mess with her hair. She is trying her hardest to get it into that perfect little bun she always wore. After a few frustrating moments, Amy succeeded and preceded to get ready with the rest of her attire. There is a little bit of tension, but Rosa figured it had everything to do with how Amy was truly feeling. She is concerned for Amy, but even in her most vulnerable moments, she has always proved to be really tough. It appears that Amy is trying to prove to her that she can handle it and Rosa knows it won’t end well.

“It was just a suggestion,” Rosa replied and she sits up to slip on her leather jacket. She feels around for her motorcycle keys and stands to her feet before heading out of the bedroom to check on Arlo before they leave. They would have to arrive at work separately to keep Jake from knowing that Amy was staying at Rosa’s the whole time she was _away at her parent’s place_. If he knew that Rosa harboring Amy like this, he would go ballistic. Now that she knows how Jake really is, she wasn’t sure of his reaction to the whole thing. He was a whole new person that she would have to be careful around like she has been.

Amy stands there in front of the mirror and watches as Rosa leaves the room. She didn’t mean to snap at her. All of these feelings that have been building up in the last couple of days have started to finally piling up. She feels like she’s suffocating underneath it all. With a little sigh, she slips into her uniform shoes and meets Rosa out in the hallway with Arlo who needed to go use the bathroom. “I’m sorry I snapped,” she said and gently grabs onto Rosa’s wrist to get her attention. “I feel like there’s a thick blanket of anxiety over top me. I want to face this, or at least try to.” Amy never told Rosa that she no longer has a desire to be at work or fulfil her dream of becoming a Captain one day.

It was all too much. Today, she was just going to focus on her crumbling marriage with Jake even though he will be having feelings that are the complete opposite of either of theirs. Rosa nods her head and puts a lead on Arlo’s collar. “I just want to make sure you’re okay, Ames. Dealing with this head on like you are... “ Her voice trails off, unsure what to even say. She knows that if she was in Amy’s position, she would probably tell Jake off and leave once she was able to get her mind right, but she knows everyone is different in these situations. 

For some it might be a long time before they bounce back to their normal selves, or at least appear to be normal. After experiencing something like Jake has done, she wouldn’t know what normal was and she was sure Amy didn’t know either, which is why she snapped at her. It wasn’t like her at all. “I’m here for you,” finished Rosa as she places a hand on Amy’s shoulder and gives it a tight squeeze. “I’m always a text away and I’ll come running if you need me.” A small smile spreads across Amy’s face as she feels assured. 

“I’ll see you around lunch, okay?” Amy says and gives Rosa a small embrace, thanking her for all of the support that has been given to her. Amy knows it’s going to be tough today, but she is attempts to steady herself by taking in deep breaths before she heads to her car. At some point in the last several weeks, she managed to sneak her car away from her place without Jake even realizing it. Of course, Rosa had helped but she at least she now has transportation and didn’t have to walk everywhere - especially if there’s a killer still on the loose. 

As she drove to precinct, she is greeted by an uncontrollable feeling of fear. It had snuck up on her, but she was already halfway there, so there was no point in turning back now. Rosa would arrive soon and she was glad that she wasn’t going to face this entire thing alone. The palms of her hands felt clammy as she grips the steering wheel, and not even the sound of Lady Gaga could cure her worries. Jake could be waiting for her, not realizing that she was coming to work today. Nobody knew she was going to be there, so this will be a huge surprise for everyone. The first thing she has to do is report to Captain Holt.

She imagines their first meeting in weeks as she parks the car in the police parking garage. Will Captain Holt be disappointed that she had to take off this much time? Will he be curious about what was happening? Holt was usually pretty respectful to one’s personal life, so she assumed those questions would be avoided but for how long? How long will she be able to put up this charade before people start asking her these very questions she dreads to answer? Breathe, Amy… Breathe. She takes in a deep breath and exhales slowly before heading to an entryway to the first floor where she is met with Detective Jennings who was surprised to see her.  


“Sarge,” he says in a bit of a panic whilst almost dropping a bunch of case work he was attempting to file. She gives him a lopsided smile and a little wave as she moves swiftly toward the elevator. “I didn’t know you came back.” He attempts to follow her, quite suspicious more than concerned on where she has been in the last couple of weeks, but Amy doesn’t give him a single chance to allow him to ask a word about it. She uses the same lie she told Jake. “I was at my parents' place. We had a family emergency and then I got sick shortly after. That is all.” Her words sounded hollow and empty, but they were enough to put Gary in his place.

She made her way up to the bullpen and when the elevator doors opened, Charles is the first one to see her and is stunned. Apparently, she was greatly missed because he comes running and wraps her arms around her tightly. Jake is sitting at his desk, but didn’t realize Amy had walked in until Charles shouted her name. “Amy! Oh my god! Where in the heck of you been? The whole precinct has been worried and Jake won’t tell us a thing!” They probably had bet on where she was or what she was doing to get a kick out of it all. Jake is facing her now, giving her this awful look as if she was the one who actually betrayed him.

“I’ve just been busy with family, Charles. It’s good to see you.” Amy smiles at him, but it quickly fades when her eyes land on Jake again. She is nervous to walk past him, but she had to in order to reach Holt’s office. Thankfully, she had the courage to do so and she manages to reach the threshold. The door is wide open and Holt is sitting at his desk sorting papers that he needed to approve. He looks up and as usual, he too looked surprised. “Santiago,” he said in that bewildered tone. “I didn’t know you were supposed to be back today. I’m glad you’re here, though. Welcome back,” he continued. “I hope everything with you family was resolved.”

Amy nods her head as she straightens her posture. This was something she had to become acquainted with all over again because all she really did was lay around Rosa’s apartment. “I did, Sir. Thank you for the welcome.” As she expected, Holt ignores the questions she is thankful he didn’t ask and she breathes a sigh of relief.

“I’m sure you’re anxious to get back to work. The last time you were training a K9 recruit, you had an allergic reaction that almost put you in the hospital.” 

She had forgotten about that. That happened what - two months ago? Since she has been dealing with Arlo, she thinks her allergies have gotten a little more used to canines. “I’m planning on moving you to a different division that you can better assist yourself without any allergy issues.” He was moving her? Amy looked slightly confused. Even though she was allergic to dogs, she didn’t despise them. She was about to open her mouth to protest the situation, but Holt continues, “I’m moving you to the aviation department. You’ll be in charge of dispatching choppers to their proper locations when they’re requested from other precincts.” 

Aviation? She knew nothing about that nor did she have any ounce of training in the field. Her first day back and already things were looking somewhat bleak for her. She wanted to stay working with the K9 units. Amy has learned to deal with her medical issue, so it’s not like inhaling chopper fumes would be any better for her. “Sir, I would like to insist I stay with the K9 units. I enjoy working with them despite everything, but I have new medication now that’s keeping the allergies at bay.” Holt is looking at her with the same stoic expression and Amy isn’t sure if he’s pleased with it or otherwise.

There was a few seconds of silence before Holt nods in acceptance. “Alright,” he says in agreement. “If you think you can handle it, but don’t let it hinder your ability to train these dogs to their highest potential.” Amy nods and she is excused from his office. That was a close one. She didn’t like the idea of transferring to aviation department. She would be in a different section of the building entirely, but it would keep her away from Jake all day. _Speak of the devil,_ she thought as she was stopped by Jake who appeared to have a guilty expression on his face. She didn’t know what that was about unless he was just simply playing his part to fool the others.

“Amy, can I talk to you in private?” Jake asks and attempts to take her hand. She tries to pull away but he managed to take her hand in his. Amy’s face is a like a statue, not making a single movement in her facial muscles. They were stiff and so were Jake’s, but Charles who had been smiling like an idiot at them for the last two minutes didn’t seem to notice the obvious red flags. He was over the moon that they were coupling up again. “I don’t think this is an appropriate place to be discussing it.”

“Appropriate?” Jake asks with a little scoff. Amy can feel his hand tighten up, gripping around her tiny ones in frustration. His anger apparently hasn’t been tinkered with since the last time he had done something like this, but it was so subtle, no one could tell that Amy was in pain. “Look, you were gone for three weeks, Amy. I was left without any warning or where you were going.” Amy just stares at him, unsure how to react. She wasn’t going to run even though he was scaring her. They were in a fucking police precinct for fuck sake and he was still acting like this without any kind remorse or guilt for what he’s done already.

They bicker for a few moments resulting Jake into dragging Amy to the evidence room. Charles only stands there, quite confused about what was happening but he supposed it might have been some kind of foreplay that they were having. He shakes his head with a little chuckle and turns to see Rosa coming through the elevator doors with her bike helmet in one hand and a cup of Starbucks coffee in the other. “Hey Boyle. You’ve seen Jake anywhere? I have to update him on that Zodiac Copycat case.” She takes a sip of coffee while as she placed her bike helmet in her desk drawer.

“Evidence room. He took Amy back there in a hurry. Ah, I’m so happy to see the two lovebirds like that.” 

Rosa practically chokes upon hearing what Charles had just said. Evidence room? At least there were security cameras that had been recording. Jake wouldn’t do anything so stupid while there was an eyewitness watching. Immediately, she sits the coffee down and moves toward the evidence room down the other side of the room. It wasn’t even 10am yet, and Jake was already causing trouble. Every now and then the volume of Jake’s voice rose behind the door and she knew that Jake was upset. If she didn’t stop this now, who knows what would happen if she allowed it to escalate regardless of the cameras. 

She takes her card scanner and unlocks the door to the evidence room and she opens it promptly to the view before her. She is stunned to find Amy shrunk against some filing boxes in one corner of the room, scared shitless and Jake is placing blame on her with his finger. “Jake!” Rosa says sharply and the two look at her. There’s a vein so deep in Rosa’s forehead that Amy swore could pop any second. 

“This doesn’t concern you, Rosa.” Jake said as he shifts his attention back over to Amy. “It’s just between me and Amy.” 

No fucking way. Even though it probably should stay between them, Rosa has been involved ever since she found out about it. There was no way she was going to let Jake push Amy around like this when he knows good and well the damage he has done so far. What he’s doing now isn’t helping in the slightest. “Get the fuck away from her.”

“Why do you even care?” Jake asks as he backs away from Amy. Quickly, Amy moves to Rosa’s side and the air inside the evidence room thickened like potato soup. It was heavy, but not with anxiety or fear, but anger from both Jake and Rosa.

“I care because she’s my friend Jake and your goddamn wife. With no reason at all, you’re scaring the shit out of her.” Rosa can feel Amy grip onto her leather jacket for support from behind her. This confrontation was going to go south really quick here a second if Amy didn’t get out of the evidence room. Rosa didn’t want her to be collateral damage when she starts throwing her fists to beat Jake’s ass. 

“Rosa,” Amy whispered the woman’s name, but Rosa’s own anger was getting the better of her worse than Jake’s. “Stop it. It’s not worth it.”

“It IS worth it,” said Rosa through gritted teeth but she was pulled back by Amy at her arms. She saw the fear for only a second in Jake’s eyes, but Amy saved him from being struck down. All of the noise coming from the evidence room had aroused suspicion from Terry who came in on the little skirmish they were having. 

“What in the hell is going on here?” He asked with a very serious tone. Terry looked displeased and he looks to all three of them with stern eyes. “I demand an explanation.” A low growl emitted from him and Rosa knew they were in deep shit.

•••

The door to Holt's office was closed and the blinds were shut. Everyone knew what that meant. Holt stands at his desk, looking disappointed as two of his detectives send each other scowls from across the room. Rosa has her arms folded across her chest and Jake is slouching back in his chair. This was confusing for Holt because he never knew these two to fight like that. Yes, they will bicker like siblings but there was something else that was obviously underlying the situation. "Explain." His tone was sharp and deep and it made Jake wince.

Holt looks at Rosa first, waving Jake out of the office so they would have a private conversation. Amy is with Terry in the break room, so Rosa knew she would be okay for now. Rosa goes on to explain in detail what has been happening knowing that Amy will be upset that she told Holt of all people. She is on her feet, her tone unwavering from the severity of her words. Holt's expression never changed, although his eyebrows raised at the information that was given to him about the abuse Amy has been enduring for all of these months. "That is a serious accusation, Diaz. Do you have evidence that Peralta has been doing these heinous things?"

There is a slight pause in her voice and she stops to think. There wasn't any evidence as far as she knew but maybe the security camera in the evidence room and prove how unnecessarily aggressive Jake was being toward Amy. They talked for another ten minutes before Holt excused Rosa and brought Jake in for questioning. He wanted both sides of the story, but Rosa knew that Jake would lie through his teeth to stay on the Captain's good side. Rosa stands stiffly as Jake shoves his shoulder roughly into hers when he walks into Holt's office.

Her teeth are bared and she attempts to resist the urge to curl her fists. Instead, she takes a deep breath and exhales slowly before heading to the break room. Terry is sitting on the couch with a very distraught Amy. He looks at Rosa when he saw her coming in and he gives her a little curt nod and stands. "Rosa," said Amy as she wipes her tears from her eyes. She runs to her and the two embrace for a small second before pulling apart. "I told Terry everything." It seems like Terry believed her for the most part. He feels guilty for raising his voice earlier and sorrow that Amy had been dealing with this. 

"So, the girl you were talking about to me the other day was Amy?" Terry asked and Rosa nods her head to confirm as she sees the confused look on Amy's face. She can already tell that Amy wants to ask questions, wants to prod her for information about the conversation she had with Terry, but she doesn’t say anything. At this moment, she is just simply thankful that others know. 

“I’m sorry, Amy. I went to Terry for advice, but I never said it was about you.” Rosa explained and she looks at Terry again. “He just guessed it on the first try.”

“I’m alright,” replied Amy. There was a little smile on her face despite everything. “You’re a good friend, Rosa. I don’t think anyone else would have helped me like you have through all of this.” 

“I can’t believe Jake of all people.” There is a look of disbelief on Terry’s face and he shoves a chair in roughly as he stood to his feet. Even he feels betrayed, not wanting to believe someone that he thought was goofy and fun-loving ended up being a total jackass to the one person who deserved the world. “I’m going to kill him.”

“Get in line,” said Rosa as she huffed.

Amy groans in frustration of the two as they waited out most of the afternoon. Jake had left Holt’s office feeling pretty good about his situation and was talking to Charles who was worried about him as usual. Holt stands at the office door, talking to Terry who was already convinced that Amy and Rosa were telling the truth and this prompted Holt to bring Amy in. He wanted to know right from the source. He waves the Sergeant into his office and closes the door. Rosa is sitting at her desk, her eyes glued to Holt’s office window hoping for a sign of movement. Terry is standing beside her, and it seems like the office is already falling apart and taking sides in this predicament. 

“You should have seen her the first time I found out, Terry. It wasn’t pretty. I wish I remembered to take pictures of the bruises. That would have helped in Amy’s case.”

Rosa sighs as she clicks around aimlessly on her computer, trying to distract herself from what was happening behind closed doors of Holt’s office. She hoped Amy was telling the truth and not hiding the fact or leaving out important details that could get Jake into serious trouble. There was no evidence aside from the security camera earlier that caught Jake doing something horrible. It was their only shot to take. Rosa turns to Terry, looking up at the man with an expression on her face that told him that she had an idea. “What are you thinking?” He asked curiously.

“The evidence room security camera. Terry, do you think you can ask to pull footage so we can see what it looks like? If anything, that will prove to Holt that we’re telling the truth.” Rosa didn’t think Holt believed them. That his protege was the golden boy of the precinct, his best detective and that he wouldn’t hurt a fly even if he had to. Holt was wrong in all accounts to ever consider this an option. She knows that Amy doesn’t want to prosecute Jake, but if they can get their hands on the footage, she might have a chance in doing so and win in a courtroom. The first step right now is to go to Magistrate Court to request a DVP to keep Amy out of harm's way.

“I’m sure I can. I’ll put in a request for the footage later this evening and we can view it.” Terry said with a sure nod. He placed a hand on Rosa’s shoulder and gave it a tight squeeze. What does that mean for the case they’ve been working on? The case of the Zodiac Copycat or what Rosa calls them by, the Nahuatl Slayer. She leaned back in her chair, knowing that Holt will resolve this issue by separating herself and Jake from the case. For sure Rosa knew that he was going to reassign her with someone else or take the case from her as punishment and give it back to Major Crimes. That is the last thing she wanted to happen, but Amy was far more important than some case and this was a risk she was willing to take.


	7. Deceptive Detectives

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the polygraph sessions begins with Jake, the case of the Brooklyn Butcher has a new home: with Major Crimes. Rosa is angry that her case was dropped after working so hard on it for months, but it's for the best when all she cares about is Amy's crumbling mental state and how to fix it. The entire precinct is stressed out and it wouldn't be long before some sort of drastic measure is taken.

“What do you mean the footage is missing?!”

The words falling from Terry’s mouth couldn’t be anymore clear. From the time she was in Holt’s office to this point in the day, the footage has been stolen. It was really the only kind of evidence they needed to press any kind of charges on Jake if Amy wanted to. Rosa leans against the security desk and gives the guard a massive groan of displeasure. It would be typical that this would happen. If something hasn’t gone wrong today, it surely will eventually. At least Amy is safe and away from Jake at the moment. She has been at the K9 training facilities all afternoon after she had told Holt everything.

Hope looked bleak right now, but there has to be some sort of logical explanation. Maybe there was a glitch in the system and it didn’t record? Rosa has asked to check and double check the tapes and the security guard had mentioned that tape had been tampered with. Terry scoffs loudly and throws his hands up before turning to Rosa. “Well, just great! What in the hell are we going to do now, Rosa? That’s the only thing standing between Amy and prosecution orders.” Terry also seemed to be on her side about wanting Amy to prosecute Jake. However, this was always a sticky situation. 

It was like the entire department had blown up in one day about all the rumors and Amy was feeling more and more uncomfortable before it was time to leave. While standing at her desk, Rosa feels a slight tug on her leather jacket and she turns to see Amy. She is taken aback by all of the things people have been saying about the scandal. It wasn’t just a scandal, this was her reality. Rosa takes a hand and runs it gently down Amy’s arm, rubbing it a little bit to give her some kind of comfort. “Aside from this morning, you did great today. I saw you training Rufus and he minded really well.” 

Rufus was a hypoallergenic dog that was assigned to Amy in order to train. He was a gentle Airedale Terrier that once it’s provoked can do massive damage to protect its handler. They are amazing guard dogs as well. “Rufus was pretty amazing. I was happy to get to work with him. He’s well behaved. He’s being trained to track people since they’re generally hunting dogs anyway.” Rosa smiles as she listens to Amy talk about her time with the K9s. Even though she is allergic to them, she is becoming more used to them as time goes on. Her allergies will never get any better sadly, but she knew it was because of her time with Arlo her indifference toward them as changed.

Rosa looks out of the corner of her eye, seeing Jake looking right back. This entire ordeal has been shit and she doesn’t know what to do remedy the entire situation. Their friendship was so tight before this, and it’s hard to believe that everything exploded so quickly and then crumbled around them at their feet. “I’m ready to go,” said Amy. “Do you want me to wait for you since I drove my own car?” Rosa shifts her eyes in her direction and smiles before grabbing her helmet from her desk drawer and leather backpack that matched her jacket. 

They’ve both had a helluva day and all she really wants to do is go home, have a beer and binge a few episodes of some mind-numbing tv show. Even though Amy is back at work now, Rosa knew that she would still be staying with her. She wouldn’t allow Amy to go back to live with Jake even if that strained their friendship. It was a heavy price to pay, but she wanted to protect Amy for as long as she could. “Nah, I’m right behind you,” she replied and Holt had stopped Rosa for only a moment. She nods to Amy, telling her that she will catch up. 

“You wanted to see me, Sir?” Rosa asks, clearly her tone has become serious whenever Holt spoke to her.

“I don’t know how,” Holt begins as he throws papers down on his desk. He sits down at his desk and leans back in his chair. “But I do believe you and Santiago. Her story seems to be truthful.”

“Sir, Amy has no reason to lie. She still loves Jake, but what he’s been doing …” Rosa’s words fall short and she groans to herself at all of the shit that has happened. “I know that without any evidence, nothing can come of this. Even the footage was tampered with from the evidence room.” She is kicking herself even harder now. There were too many past mistakes that she regrets, but taking Amy from that situation was probably not one of them. She knew it was the right call because who would know how beaten up she would have been if she had stayed under Jake’s iron fist that had hold on her even now.

“I know, which is why next week I’m requesting a polygraph test. If Jake fails it, he will be suspended for two weeks without pay. He gets one chance to get his act together. I should have never meddled in their business, but they’re bringing it to work.”

His words were a little harsh, but Rosa knows that Holt does care about Amy. Holt’s just saying this to keep a professional image, but she was glad that the man she has come to respect after all these years is proving himself to be a valuable asset to Amy’s situation. A polygraph test would definitely help and there was no way Jake would pass that. Every time he fucked around with it just for fun, he would end up failing it right there on the spot. Rosa nods her head to him and she is excused from the office before meeting back up with Amy who had waited for her. With a few other officers around, she felt more safe in the bullpen than downstairs.

They walk together, talking about what had happened and Rosa mentioned the polygraph test. It was their only shot at something like this. There was a concerned expression on Amy’s face and it seemed like she didn’t want to go through with it. Deep down, she didn’t want to hurt Jake’s reputation even though he had hurt her far more than any damage she would ever do to him. Rosa doesn’t argue with it, only switched the subject as they made their way to their vehicles. It made her feel guilty that she had put Jake in this tight spot. Maybe she should have been a better wife to him? 

Maybe she shouldn’t have left? That she should have stayed and endured it because that’s what relationships were. As Rosa talks to her, she can tell that Amy isn’t exactly there -- at least not mentally. There is a vacant expression on her face and it worries Rosa to the point where she may just have to leave her bike here for the night and drive Amy back to her apartment. “Amy,” said Rosa as she closes the door to the driver’s side. She has never drove Amy’s vehicle, but it didn’t take her time to figure everything out. “Please don’t think whatever happens to Jake is your fault.” She clicks her seatbelt and begins turns the ignition on. 

“I need you to be here with me, okay?” she asks as she places a hand over top Amy’s that were sitting still in her lap. Amy looked like she was half dead staring out the window. Her face was blank and there wasn’t much feeling there from before. “I know this is going to get even harder, but I’m always going to be here for you.” 

They make it home and already Rosa is calling the precinct to make sure that her motorcycle was okay. Detective Jennings had picked up the phone that had bounced all over the office trying to get to someone and Rosa told him to make sure there was a security camera on it where she had parked. She would have to come back later to retrieve her bike because she didn’t feel safe enough to leave her trusty steed there despite it being a police precinct. She sighs, hanging up on him before grabbing a beer or two from the fridge. Amy is sitting on the couch, but she hasn’t really said or done much within the hour they had gotten home.

She was still in her uniform, too and Rosa wondered if she should try to persuade Amy to at least get her pajamas on. They weren’t planning on doing anything tonight and Rosa had ordered a large pizza for both of them to share. She sits down on the couch next to her friend and she looks over before taking a generous sip of beer. When Amy is like this, it always makes Rosa paranoid. The deafening silence that she caused could send trained monk from Tibet into a swirling torture because of it. Rosa turns the television on, scouring Netflix for something they’d both enjoy. 

They weren’t going to work on the Brooklyn Butcher case tonight, nor were they going to worry about what was happening at work. Tonight, Rosa just wanted to make sure Amy was simply okay. That was a lot to ask for, Rosa knew this, but at the same token she really hoped that she was. Everything looked like it was starting to affect Amy to the point where she isn’t going to respond to reason. She missed Jake, that much was obvious, but Rosa doesn’t know if she understood the severity of the consequences if she had ever gone back to him. It was mind boggling to Rosa, but she wasn’t in Amy’s shoes right now. She would never understand what Amy went through, and there was no room for her to judge not that she would.

Rosa stands on her feet and sits her beer down on the coffee table in front of her. There is a pounding in her chest as she stands in front of Amy. This single move made Amy look up from her lap. It was the first sign of life in her in hours and Rosa allows her hand to fall down at eye level to Amy’s face. Reluctantly, the Sergeant takes Rosa’s hand and she is pulled up to her feet and Rosa continues to take little pieces of her uniform off. “You can at least put your pajamas on,” said Rosa as she gently takes the hair tie from Amy’s messy bun. She was expecting Amy to reject the motion, but she didn’t which surprised Rosa.  


Taking the hair tie to her own wrist, Rosa goes to retrieve a hairbrush from her bathroom and begins to comb out Amy’s hair. Her locks were soft and she could smell Amy’s lavender shampoo which drove her mad on the inside. Amy actually begins to aid her by unzipping her uniform jacket and slips out of it. Today had been long for them both, but still Amy is here right now. She survived the day and that made Rosa feel better about what they had achieved. Rosa takes the jacket and hangs it by the door with care. “Thank you, Rosa.” Amy says as she managed to take her feet out of her uniform shoes and kicks them under the table in front of her. 

She is in her short sleeve uniform shirt. It was pressed to perfection and Rosa could see how much pride she had for her rank and job, but right now that pride had diminished slightly. She could see it. Arlo is lying in the corner of the room on his giant bed near the kitchen. He is watching Amy curiously, and even he can tell there was something going on underneath it all. The canine follows Amy who was heading into Rosa’s room to change and he sits down at the foot of the bed several feet from her. “Good boy, Arlo.” Rosa mutters when she watches the tail end of their loyal companion make sure Amy had some company.

The rest of the evening went smoothly. Amy was finally in pajamas after a lot of effort and she was able to stomach a few slices of greasy pizza. She obviously wasn’t feeling herself and it was hard to explain to someone what she was feeling especially when she doesn’t know herself. She knew it wasn’t fair to Rosa, but there wasn’t anything she could do. She has to let time move on from this and heal the best she can, but going to work every day just seems like she’s ripping off that bandaid without giving it any kind of time. The scars were painful.

“I’m going to bed,” said Amy as she dumps her dish in the sink to deal with tomorrow. If she felt like doing them. Rosa sighs as she leans against the counter, but she doesn’t protest Amy turning in early. It was probably for the best. She doesn’t say goodnight. She just stares at Rosa with that same expression she’s had on all evening before turning on the balls of her bare feet and walks into Rosa’s room. She feels concerned for Amy more than anything, but there wasn’t an easy way to go about it and she didn’t think no amount of time would be able to help. Rosa stands there and chugs the rest of her beer and turns to do the sink to do the dishes herself. It was one less thing Amy has to deal with.

•••

The next morning, Rosa was the first one awake. Laying next to her was a snoring Amy and Rosa refused to bother or wake her. Maybe she needed the sleep. Normally, whenever Amy prepared for work she had always been the first one to rise. The only reason she knew this was because Amy had sent her texts at 6:30 in the morning before and Rosa hadn’t even opened one eyelid. It was now 8:30, and even she was a few minutes later. She would have to drive Amy’s car to work this morning to pick up her bike and have Terry or Holt help her get both vehicles home if Amy doesn’t show up for work.

Once Rosa was ready to leave, she took another peek into the bedroom and still sees Amy laying there with the comforter pulled over her head. It was hard to watch her like this, but Rosa couldn’t stand here and wait for her all day. She tells Arlo to watch over Amy and when she slips out the front door of her apartment, she makes sure that it’s locked and she takes off down the hallway that led outside. She slides into Amy’s vehicle, inhaling that new car smell. It seemed like Amy always had taken care of it since she got it a couple years ago. 

It had taken her nearly fifteen minutes to get the precinct due to mid-morning traffic and she knew she’d be hearing it from Captain Holt once she got there, but to her surprise he wasn’t in the office. She had made it barely by the skin of her teeth. She sighs as she strolls into the break room and grabs herself a cup of coffee for a little pick me up. She looks around. No one seemed to be in the office today except for Charles and a few uniformed underlings. To be honest, she didn’t really feel all that up to talking to Boyle only because she wasn’t sure how he would react to almost getting Jake thrown under the bus.

However, she needed to know where everyone was so she goes over to him and bags her foot up against the cabinet connected to his desk. It made him jump at the vibrations and echoed sound, but he looks up at her with these pitiful eyes. “What in the hell is going on? Where is everyone?” She asks as she takes a sip of coffee. It seemed like Charles didn’t really want to speak to her either, but he had no other choice in the matter. “They’re polygraphing Jake. How could someone like him hurt Amy? I don’t believe what they’re telling me.” That means they’re in the interrogation room. 

She can see why Charles didn’t want to be in there to be apart of it all, but he had to understand that this was for the best. Rosa didn’t realize they would get a polygrapher in so quickly. Holt must be on the case like flies on an elephant’s ass considering he was wanting to do this next week. He knew it couldn't wait. She sits her helmet down in her desk drawer and heads to the interrogation room. She can hear Captain Holt speaking to Jake and she opens the door to the room behind the two-way mirror to meet with Terry and several other officials. It was all too serious and they look at her briefly. Captain Wunch was even here for some reason and that couldn’t be good. Were they thinking of taking the Brooklyn Butcher case away from her?

The polygrapher sits in front of Jake and for the most part he was cooperating with them. The tension in the air is thick in this tiny little room making it impossible to think and she felt like she had labored breathing issues. Terry leans over and whispers something to her. “Where’s Amy? She needs to be in here for this.” Rosa explains to Terry how Amy appeared to be since yesterday evening and she tells him she isn’t joining them. He nods his head and listens to Captain Holt ask Jake all of the important questions concerning Amy.

He started off with easier yes or no questions Jake can answer simply until they gradually became harder to the point Rosa could see the man twitch in his spot. “Did you, Jake Peralta, ever became physically aggressive with Amy in a way which harmed her mental state?” The questions were definitely straight to the point and Rosa simply watches Jake’s expression as he was all pinned up against the machine that had been detecting his lies all morning. She can tell that Holt was getting aggravated because Jake would eventually force himself into a humorous state to distract them. “Just answer the question, Peralta.” Holt says with a stern tone.

“No,” said Jake simply after he had gathered himself. The answer was pretty point blank, but an obvious lie. How many times are they going to ask him that question over and over before he tells the truth? He won’t ever tell the truth in how much hurt he has caused Amy. Rosa could feel her hand tightening around her coffee mug and it was like her body was being put on autopilot. She couldn’t stop the anger that was bubbling through her. “What a fucking coward,” she mumbled and Terry overheard her. “He’s obviously lying. The tests will tell that and he can get off my case.”

“Actually,” Wunch said as she turned her head to the detective. “You’re both going to be off this case if he fails this test. Even though it would be better if you, Detective Diaz, to continue working on it, it’s much more plausible to give it back to Major Crimes. You and Peralta have been on this case for months and have shown little effort to solve it.” Rosa was getting her ass chewed out instantly, and she quickly defended herself by telling her about the things she has found about the Brooklyn Butcher aka the Nahuatl Slayer. She was shut down immediately, though and was never given that chance. “From this point onward, I’m taking this case back.”

In complete shock, Rosa feels the anger forced her hand and she storms out of the room without another word said. “God-fucking-dammit!” She growls under her breath. This enraged feeling was almost too much and she had been the most angry she has been in a while. Even more than the time she found out about the abuse Amy had been going through. She was pacing back and forth at her desk and kicked the cabinet so hard it was moved a few inches out of place. The entire bullpen looked at her, but none of them really wanted to try to console the angry detective. They were used to seeing Rosa like this, so it wasn’t a big deal right?

Rosa decides to deal with her anger the best way she knew how: **SMASH THINGS**. There were several blue and yellow NYPD coffee mugs sitting nearby and she grabs every single one of them without a second thought. Charles knew what she was doing and followed her out onto the rooftop level where he sees Rosa setting them down except for one that was gripped into her hand. Charles stands by Gina’s golden statue, watching Rosa in silence as she takes one mug after the other and throws it down hard until it hits the floor beneath her feet. It shatters into tons of pieces, but Rosa wasn’t sure if it made her feel any better.

She feels like total shit. There wasn’t a single thing she can do for Amy, her case had been taken away from her and she is losing people who she thought were her best friends and considered to be family. Things are happening so quickly that she didn’t realize that she was already on the last available mug to be thrown. She stares at it for a second or two, contemplating if this ever was a good idea to begin with.Should she had meddled in Jake and Amy’s relationship? Maybe she should have just let things be. She knows she saved Amy, but at what price if all she is doing is acting like Rosa had done the wrong thing?  


Right before she was about reel her arm back to give a nice throw against the wall, her arm was captured by a strong, gentle hand. She took in a shaky breath and turned her head to see Terry who had come to console her. “Diaz, stop it.” He orders as he pried the mug from her strong grip that could equally match his own in a scary way. He looks down, eyeing all of the broken shards of ceramic mug that definitely symbolized Rosa’s anger. Terry can see the look in her eyes and he had never known Rosa to become so emotional before, but he knows how hard this can be on a person who was standing on the outside looking in.

Charles decides to leave, seeing as there wasn’t anything he could do to remedy the situation. He groans to himself, taking his bag and opening the flap to reveal the contents of the missing footage from the evidence room. He knows he should give them back, but he wanted to protect Jake at all costs. With this polygraph test going on still, he doesn’t know if this would save him, or make Charles more involved than he intended. He needed to dispose of them quickly before anyone could find out what had happened to the evidence room footage from yesterday.

“I know it’s hard, Diaz.” Terry says as he places the mug down on the small table that was sitting outside with them. “You’re one of the strongest people I know. You can’t be crumbling like this. We need you. With what’s happening to Jake and Amy, we need you to be the glue that holds us all together.” His words were comforting, but Rosa wasn’t sure if was able to hold that kind of responsibility at the moment. A loud boom of thunder rolled off in the distance, signaling that it was going to rain soon. She could at least do some of the desk grunt work to keep this place running. 

Rosa doesn’t say anything. She just stands there as another crackle of thunder erupts a little closer. The clouds are forming as splotches of dull grey smear across the sky. She can smell the rain in the air. “Can you help me today? I need to get Amy’s vehicle and my bike back to my apartment. I don’t know what’s going on with Amy. She won’t talk to me.” Terry sighs and places a comforting hand on Rosa’s shoulder and gives her a nod. He decided that he was going to drive Amy’s vehicle back to Rosa’s apartment while she took her bike, but for the rest of the afternoon and evening at work, Rosa sat diligently at her desk doing paperwork to keep her mind focused.

There was no need to be so concerned for a polygraph test that she knew was going to fail Jake. Holt was going to suspend him for two solid weeks without pay. This was a serious offense considering these were two of Holt’s finest detectives being affected by Jake’s actions. If Amy hadn’t been part of the equation and some other woman instead, it wouldn’t have been nearly severe Rosa assumed. For Amy’s sake, she needed to be able to pull herself together and focus on the tasks that needed to be done. Even though Wunch took the Brooklyn Butcher case from her, that doesn’t mean she wasn’t going to stop working it.


	8. Harbored Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Amy quits the force, she receives text messages from Jake's mother, Karen, who claims that Jake had attempted to commit suicide. Is it true? Meanwhile, Rosa is doing everything she can to make Amy feel comfortable and normal again after what had happened and this means another friend date she has in store for them.

Two more weeks have crawled by, but it feels like an eternity. Sadly, things haven’t gotten any better for Amy and instead, only have gotten much - much worse. A few days after Jake’s polygraph test, she had decided to quit the force. It had been a total shock to everyone, considering how Amy always wanted to become a Captain one day, but the stress of everything and everyone involved had caused her depression to down spiral into something that was almost irreversible. Starting over was going to be hard, but at least she didn’t have to go to work and see Jake’s face.

“What’re you going to do now?” Rosa asked as she sits there on one of the kitchen bar stools across from Amy who looked more than disappointed in herself than anything. She doesn’t say anything at first, but shrugs her shoulders at the question. Not even Amy knows how she is feeling. It is a hollow void on the inside where it feels like nothing else would be able to fill it. Jake had destroyed her self-esteem, which made her question her own abilities and confidence as a Sergeant. 

Could she have handled the tasks with the K9 units? She was starting to enjoy working with Rufus, but that dream faltered. “I’m not sure. I know my parents are going to be upset, but they don’t understand. No one does, Rosa. I don’t exactly understand either.” Amy didn’t even in hand in her two weeks. Holt was more surprised than anyone at the reveal, but he didn’t throw any harsh judgement. Something like this always comes after experiencing trauma. He did, however, try to convince her to stay, but Amy refused.

Rosa stands to her feet and makes her way around the bar until she is inches from Amy. The movement makes Amy tense slightly, but Rosa’s comforting touch was enough to relax her again. She looks up before leaning against her friend, feeling arms wrap around her. “Remember, you can stay here as long as you want.” Rosa says as she runs her fingers through Amy’s hair. She doesn’t know how she will support Amy as she lives here, but she doesn’t want her to go back to Jake. 

She couldn’t go live with her parents either as much as she would be better off, but her parents would just hound her about the situation she is in and that is something she knows Amy isn’t ready for. She needs time to grieve over this loss - if that’s what you want to call it. In Rosa’s perspective, it’s merely a win in her eyes. She pulls away from the other woman, giving her a little comforting smile and a light pat on her shoulder. “I feel like maybe we should make your stay somewhat more… permanent.” For the first time in days, Amy’s lips tug upward into a little smile. 

Permanent? Amy thought she’d never see the day where Rosa so willingly sacrifices her privacy for someone else, but Rosa might have gotten a little used to it all by now. “Really?” Amy asks almost in disbelief. “You’d let me stay here permanently?” Rosa returns the smile and gives her friend a slight nod. Roommates had been something Rosa never really was so keen about, but given the stance on the situation at hand, there was no other choice. Rosa would do anything for Amy at this point especially if that meant she would stay with Rosa longer. She had been enjoying her company.

It wouldn’t be any different than how Amy was living with Rosa now, it’d just be a little bit more finalized. Rosa would have to go to Amy’s house to help gather more of her things just because she didn’t want to confront Jake about what had happened at work. “I’m going to get dinner started,” said Rosa as she heads to the fridge and pulls out a package of rib meat. Even though this had been a bit of good news for Amy, she can’t help but still feel like everything that she worked for was in shambles. Living with Rosa is only a small victory of a huge loss.

“It’s okay,” said Amy as she waved off Rosa making dinner. “You don’t have to put effort into it. I’m not really that hungry.”

Rosa looks over her shoulder, arching a brow in the woman’s direction. That was a flat out lie. When she was embracing Amy a few minutes ago, she heard her stomach growl. She hadn’t been eating properly since all of this started. Rosa watches Amy leave and head into her bedroom - which now it would technically be “their” bedroom. Rosa could feel a bit of heat rise in her cheeks at the thought, but she quickly shakes it away knowing how inappropriate those feelings are. At least Jake is now out of Amy’s life and she can continue to heal no matter how long it takes. Terry is right to tell her to just be patient.

Despite what Amy says, Rosa continues to fix dinner anyway. She made tacos and shredded the rib meat after it was cooked with all the fixings. Maybe the smell of food would coax Amy back into the living room, but Rosa never saw her again that night. It was 10pm and a couple tacos later, Rosa wasn’t nearly as tired as she thought she was. She is up, watching a horror movie with Arlo at her feet. When she checked on Amy before, she was sound asleep. That was a few hours ago. Maybe she should check on her again? Rosa knows it’s pointless to keep checking, but she is still worried about Amy regardless.

•••

The next morning, Rosa was already up working on her second cup of coffee. Amy was still asleep and she had checked to make sure she was still breathing. At least she was alive despite being entirely motionless. “Ames,” she whispers and give her friend a little push in her shoulder. Amy barely stirs, turning on her side. It was a nice day and she wanted to cheer Amy up by taking her a ride on her motorcycle. Over a month ago, Amy mentioned about wanting to go for a ride, but they had never got around to it when everything exploded in their faces.

Depression was fucking terrible. Amy was once full of life, pride and laughter, but it has all taken a huge turn for the worst. Rosa doesn’t pry further, but just sighs before leaving Amy alone again. Arlo is laying at the foot of the bed watching over the woman, though, so Rosa is thankful for that. He has came to Rosa before in regard to Amy and her nightmares and Rosa was successful in waking her before they had gotten so much worse. She tells Arlo to stay, and as soon as she leaves Amy’s head pops up from the comforter to see. She lays back down, taking her phone from under the blanket and sliding it open. 

For the last two or three nights, she has been texting Jake’s mother. The guilt is eating her alive and she needed to speak to someone. She has called Jake’s mother on several occasions, but didn’t know what would happen if Rosa had found out. Simply speaking, Amy just wanted to make sure Jake was alright without her. If he had moved on, that would be fine, but if not and he was suffering, she wouldn’t know what to do. She knows going back to him is out of the question, but maybe they can still be friends somehow. 

**K:** You know he’s lost without you.  
**A:** I know, but he hurt me pretty bad.  
**K:** He didn’t mean to, Amy. He loves you.  
**A:** I love him, too, but he betrayed our trust when he raised a fist at me.  
**A:** He gave me bruises, Karen.

The texts were a little harsh, but she needed to let Jake’s mother know that her son isn’t what he seemed to be. He was still the goofy, fun-loving guy, but even that seemed like it was nothing but smoke and mirrors. She didn’t lie when she told Karen that she still loved him, but she needed to know what was going on. 

**A:** Jake got suspended without pay for 2 weeks.  
**K:** He told me. He was just nervous about being interviewed. They need to do it again because I can bet anything he will pass it.  
**K:** Amy, you have to see him. He’s not doing good.  
**A:** I can’t. I promised myself I wouldn’t. This is the last time I’m texting you.  
**K:** Jake almost killed himself several days after he was suspended.

Her eyes widen at the words she reads. Amy screws her eyes shut and clicks the phone off before the emotions became too much. Her eyes become watery and she swallows the lump in her throat that was threatening to puncture a hole in her heart. Jake… almost killed himself? Was he that bad? She didn’t know if this was true. It could be Karen trying to convince her to go back with him. Karen is too blind by her own motherly love toward him, that she can’t see how much of a monster Jake truly was, but he almost killed himself….

Amy places a hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs. She had to pull herself together. She didn’t want Rosa to come in and she’d have to explain what was going on, but it was hard to imagine Jake trying to take his own life. It didn’t sound like Jake, but Amy didn’t know where the real Jake was she had fallen in love with. Her phone lights up again, but she doesn’t feel like checking it. She knows it’s Karen trying to make her feel even more guilt. She sends the woman a text, stating that she is blocking Karen’s number and to cease contact.

It didn’t make her feel any better. Maybe Rosa was right. She needed some fresh air. Amy had been laid up in bed for the last several days and hadn’t even seen another living person aside from Rosa if she had been persistent. Rising from the bed, she sniffs and takes a tissue to blow her nose and wipe the tears from her eyes. She couldn’t let Rosa know she had been crying over Jake. She has been patient about it so far, but she doesn’t know how long it would be until Rosa snaps and tells her how it is. To make Rosa happy, she will try to enjoy today a little bit. Strolling out of the bedroom, Rosa looks over to see Amy with a little smile.

There is no smile on Amy’s face. While barefoot, she steps over through the kitchen and wraps her arms around Rosa who was sorting mail at the counter. The other woman freezes for a second, unsure if she should move. Rosa blinks, laying down a stack of envelopes and she looks over her shoulder. “Hey,” she says softly. Rosa doesn’t know what’s going on, but she isn’t going to force anything on Amy that she doesn’t want to do. “You okay?” Rosa asks and places a hand overtop Amy’s that was wrapped around her waist. 

Amy nods her head and she pulls away slightly before Rosa turns around to face her. Her eyes were puffy and Rosa noticed she had been crying, but she doesn’t say anything about it. “I was thinking we can do what you had planned today. I’m sorry I’ve been a total mopey lame-o lately.” Rosa smiles slightly, tucking a few strands of hair behind Amy’s ear and trails her fingers gently along her jawline. The touches were very intimate, but Amy didn’t think anything of it. She was sleeping in Rosa’s bed afterall and that was one of the most intimate and vulnerable places you can be with someone.

“Don’t be sorry,” said Rosa and shakes her head. “If you want to go for a little ride, we can do that. I can pack some leftovers from last night if you want and we can have a picnic somewhere.” With a little smile, Rosa continues to deal with the bills laying on the counter. She sorts them out, figuring out which ones she needed to pay now and wait until she got paid to deal with the rest. Amy nods her head, figuring that might be something she’d enjoy. She can’t even remember the last thing that gave her kind of feeling. She appreciates Rosa’s patience and how she helps deal with her feelings that just feel like they’re hanging by threads.

Rosa makes her way to the fridge to pack some food and Amy decides to change into proper clothes and tries to take care of herself. She needed to wash her face, brush her teeth and all the appropriate things that she should have been doing daily. It was just hard to do any of that when she didn’t feel like even getting up out of bed anymore, but she needed to do something to make Rosa feel like she was getting better. Of course, things aren’t. Finally, she was able to feel slightly better. She doesn’t feel as gross, so maybe tonight she’d take a shower or a bath. That might help slightly.

•••

Honestly speaking, this was exactly what Amy needed. A day outside in some fresh air. She left her phone at home so there wouldn’t be any distractions. There was always a sense of dread when the phone lit up, wanting her undivided attention. Right now, her focus was on Rosa and how badass she looked while riding this bike. The heat from the engine between her legs rattled as they made their way down a winding road that jetted off to the rural part of New York. They needed to get away from the city today, and Rosa knew of a place that would be perfect enough for Amy to relax. 

It took about two hours to get outside the city to where they were going and they came upon a little gravel road that had tall grass on both sides. It was much different out here and once the motorcycle was parked, Amy took off the helmet and gazed at her surroundings. “What is that smell?” Amy asks.

“The country,” Rosa replies simply with a little smile. She grabs the cooler backpack full of snacks and nods in the direction of a picnic table that was sitting comfortably under an old weeping willow that looked like it had stood there for a hundred years or more. Nearby, she can see the shore of a lake that was covered by thick brush and a crumbling farming structure that was most likely used to store feed. “Where are we?” Amy asks a little confused on where they were. Rosa never told her where they were going, so she didn’t know if she should have been more concerned than thrilled.

Rosa lays out all the food, keeping it covered as she walks over to hand Amy a beer. They would be here for a while, so a couple beers wouldn’t hurt. “Catskills. One of the most beautiful places in New York in my opinion.” Amy thought the name sounded amusing, but she did like the pristine conditions and the weather was certainly perfect now that autumn was rolling around. She can clearly see the leaves changing and the scent of cool air lifting in the trees. There are cicadas singing in the background, but the noise they made was a lot better than the sounds of lunch hour traffic jams.

“You’re right. Screw Niagara Falls. This place is way more peaceful,” said Amy which surprised Rosa into choking on her beer with laughter. She is glad Amy is starting to feel better and she knew that bringing her out here to this little area would do ample amounts of decompressing. Amy takes a seat next to Rosa as she sips her beer. She is unsure if this is happiness, or something else entirely that is masking the feeling. She wonders if later today when they go back home if that depression will creep back in. She knows it’s there waiting for her to return to reality. It was scary to think that she would eventually have to go back.

Even though this feeling of serenity won’t last, this place was beautiful, though. It was quiet and surreal and she can feel calmness just from staring at the rolling clouds above them. Amy still wanted to tell Rosa what Jake’s mother had sent. Knowing Rosa, she wouldn’t take it lightly, but she needed some kind of help. What if Karen was right and Jake tried to commit suicide? No. Don’t bring it up right now. That’s the last thing they should ever talk about. “Hey Rosa,” she says and leans against the detective. Amy always did that when there was something on her mind that she needed to talk. 

“I’m sorry about your case being dropped. I know how much you wanted it.”

Rosa looks over at Amy, giving her a little shrug. It was sad that she was dismissed from the case, but what Amy didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. Maybe it was best if she didn’t get involved. “It’s okay. There’s plenty of other cases to work on. They’re piling up and there’s a lot of perps that need processed. With you and Jake gone, I need to step up in the office instead of in the field.” The thought of Rosa continuously working alone behind a desk all because there weren't any people at the office to fill those spots, really sent a different kind of guilty wave down Amy’s body. This felt much different than the one Karent laid out on her.

This one felt genuine. Karen’s guilt trip about Jake felt fabricated and forced. Either way, there was a mountain of guilt that was pressuring Amy and she feels just stuck on what to do or how to help remedy the situation. She blames herself for everything that has happened so far. “I’m sorry. This is all my fault. If I hadn’t invited you in that day, you wouldn’t have seen the bruises, and Jake and I would still be together. You would have your case.” 

Rosa looks over at her and snakes a comforting arm around her. “It’s not. Amy, shit just happens and you can’t do anything to control it. Sure, my case has been dropped, but I don’t care about that not when I knew you were living through hell with Jake.” Rosa takes another sip of beer before setting it back down on the table. She stands to her feet and briefly clears her throat before offering a hand down to Amy. “Enough about all of that. We’re here to have fun and relax. Come on. There’s a historical farmhouse not too far from here if you’re interested. Let’s go check it out.”


	9. Promises and Epiphanies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As a lead in the Brooklyn Butcher case breaks wide open for Rosa, she doesn't realize what's happening with Amy mentally and physically until one night at home. Rosa has a strange epiphany while Amy promises her something important.

With the downfall of her case, Rosa didn’t exactly know what to do at work. She has busied herself with office work and simply just going out lesser cases that she felt unworthy to her. Well, Rosa knew they were still important to deal with, but she felt a little disheartened after her case was Vulture’d. At least she was able to work it in secret. What Captain Holt didn’t know, won’t hurt him. If anything, it would hurt her in the end if he ever found out. Rosa stood at the fax machine, taking a deep breath as another paper jam made her entire body tense in frustration. She had to remind herself not to beat the living shit out of this time considering this had been the sixth one they’ve had to replace.

Maybe she should get out of there? Take on a case that allowed her to be outside. The office was stuffy and the mindless chatter from the uniformed officers weren’t helping. She can overhear two of them talking about what happened between Jake and Amy, realizing that rumors about it were already starting to spread. Rosa feels her hands tighten around the transaction sheet that came through letting her know case files had been sent. She hated that people would just talk about anything and everything without thinking about the consequences. She has half a mind to say something to them, but she holds her tongue.

There was no need to start an argument since it would only make things worse. She takes in another deep breath and staples the transaction sheet to the case that she had just finished working on. She feels a bit lost at work now that they were down two people. Jake was still on suspension and Amy had decided to quit the force a week ago. Even though they had their little outing, Amy still feels guilty about it everything that has happened. Nothing ever seems to make her feel better - even if it was for a day. Her mood was all over the place and usually she just stayed buried under blankets in their bedroom. Rosa didn’t know what to do for her and waiting around for Amy to come out of this funk was difficult.

She looks up from her desk, watching Charles walk directly past her without saying anything. He was still upset over Jake and Amy, but she knew where his feelings truly lied. It wasn’t Amy at all he cared for, it was just Jake. If Rosa didn’t know any better, she’d say he was in love with Jake, but she never really thought about asking, at least not now. It didn’t matter though. Charles wasn’t speaking to her over the whole ordeal, so it wasn’t like she could anyway. After she files the papers, she takes long strides toward Captain Holt’s office and lightly knocked on his door. “Come in,” he says. Rosa still can never tell if he was in a good or bad mood.

When he looks up, he takes off his reading glasses and waves Rosa inside. “Diaz,” he says as he gestures to the chair in front of his desk. Rosa takes a seat, sitting very stiffly. She clears her throat, giving the Captain a little nod. “I’d like to apologize about your case. I know how much it meant to you. I tried everything to get Wunch to change her mind, but as insufferable as she is… she’s right about it.” He couldn’t believe he said that Wunch was _**right**_ about taking her case away. Rosa curls her lips in, nodding slightly in false agreement. “With what happened between Peralta and Santiago, I would suggest that you keep things on the down low around here to not bring attention to the precinct. We don’t need anymore backlash.”

This is perfect. _Just perfect._ If she does get caught, things will be way worse than she thought. She needed to be diligent and careful, keeping what she finds out about the case to herself. October 16th was the day the rave was supposed to happen at this Aztec-themed club. Supposedly, that’s where someone who knows the Brooklyn Butcher or it could be them, too. She didn’t know, but she wanted to. She was going to this rave without any backup. No gun, no badge. She needed to get in to see who left behind the flyer when she and Jake were exploring Prospect Park that day weeks ago. 

“I understand, Sir.” Rosa says with slight disappointment in her tone.

“I’m sorry, Diaz. I tried. It would have been a huge win for the precinct if we managed to get that bastard.” Holt says and leans back in his chair. 

“It’s okay. I’m sure Major Crimes will do a much better job with it. I’m perfectly fine doing other open cases.” Rosa explains with a short sigh. “We were stuck most of the time after the last body was found.”

She needed to go back to Prospect Park to check out what had been buried underneath the fresh mulch. Right now, it wouldn’t be fresh like it was that day and Rosa knew that Forensics wouldn’t have returned back to the area to look around the second time. It would be fair game. Maybe she would take Arlo and check the scene out again since he did have some experience as a sniffer dog. “Understandable. There’s a lot of other work that needs to be done around here. We need people to pick up the pace to get detainees prosecuted and moved. Our holding cell is filling and Scully and Hitchcock can only do so much.” He says with a slight groan.

“Sir, I don’t think I can be here in the office for much longer before I suffocate,” says Rosa as she rubbed her temples. “Are there any open cases?”

Looking down at the random files on his desk, Holt sifts through them before offering Rosa to look into an aggravated assault charge on someone who had threatened a New York politician. Her eyes widen slightly. “You need to get a description if possible when you interview her. Anything at all would help the case.” Her? Rosa raises a brow, wondering who the politician was. Holt signs the case off to Rosa, handing the files over to her. When she views them, her eyes widen when it was somebody actually well known in the media. She sighs, dreading having to deal with politics. Rosa decides to treat it like any other case though and stands on her feet, thankful she was given the opportunity.

“I’ll update you later this evening about what’s going on. Thank you, Captain.”

He nods to her and she is excused from the office, heading toward her desk to grab her purse, jacket and helmet. A text comes through on her phone and it was Amy who was bored at the apartment. She wondered if it would be alright if she tagged along, but thought against it. With a little sigh, she sends Amy a quick reply stating that she would try to be home early so they could do something together. At least Amy was feeling a little better and enough to want to do something. She has been laid up in bed for a couple days now and Rosa didn’t know what to do for her. Now she can breathe a little bit. She also explains the case that Holt just gave her and Amy seemed genuinely curious.

 **R:** “I’ll text you before I leave.”  
**A:** “Alright. Let me know what’s going on.”  
**R:** “Sounds good. I’ll pick up dinner on the way. Fancy anything?”  
**A:** “Honestly, Mexican food sounds delicious right now.”  
**R:** “You got it. Text me what you want later.”

She ends the conversation, wanting to send a little heart emoji but decided against it and begins to head out the door. This politician was living in Brooklyn for now visiting family, but she is staying at one of the high end hotels for privacy sake. Today was going to be long and difficult, especially since she still wanted to go back and look around Prospect Park. There would have to be another time and day to do it. “The William Vale. Interesting,” mumbled Rosa as she read the file. “Rachel Dean.” She heads down to her motorcycle parked in the garage and takes the normal route which would be a lot quicker than taking shortcuts. 

It was still morning, so traffic was still herding around the city like cattle trying to get to places where they need to be. She missed the quiet that Catskills had to offer and would like to go back one day soon when Amy is feeling better. It took Rosa about twenty minutes to get to the hotel and she is always careful to park her bike somewhere where there is security cameras. She couldn’t be too careful. Even though this was a case she didn’t think would be offered to her, she is still glad to be out of the office. When she approaches the sliding doors of the hotel, she enters the lobby where two men in black tuxes that looked like secret service came forward. They were expecting her as she showed her badge to them they escorted the detective to the politician’s room.

They were like lap dogs and Rosa just snarled under her breath for having to be watched as if she needed a babysitter. She couldn’t blame them with what happened, but it still annoyed her. “Miss Dean? My name is Detective Rosa Diaz. I’m here to interview you for your case.” A blonde woman was sitting on the end of her bed and she stands to greet Rosa with much appreciation in her tone despite the worry she had on her face. They shake hands and Rosa could see the woman relax a little bit. Rosa seemed to have that effect on women especially and they sit down to talk about what happened in a very cautious manner. Genuinely, Rosa felt horrible for what she went through because it was something similar to Amy’s situation.

As they were sitting there discussing what had happened, Rachel goes into detail about what the man looked like. “He had one of the weirdest tattoos on the side of his neck. It looked ancient,” she said with a little shrug. “Almost tribal maybe? I was lucky to get away because I don’t know what would have happened. Thank god for self defense classes.” Rosa smiles slightly, impressed that this tiny human knew self-defense and was able to handle her own despite the scare. Rosa is impressed with her and she nods her head in agreement. “That’s awesome you were able to handle your own. A tribal tattoo you say? Can you show me what it looks like?” 

Rosa takes out her notepad and hands it over to Rachel who began to trace the symbol the best she can recall. It took a few seconds, but Rosa definitely knows that symbol from somewhere. With the description she gave of the man that attacked her, she tries to put two and two together. “It’s Aztec,” said Rosa when Rachel finished up the little sketch. She looks curious about it, but Rosa stands on her feet, taking a little snapshot of the sketch to send to Amy questioning the origin of the symbol. If Amy was in any mood at all, she would be willing to at least help Rosa out with this. “Aztec?” 

After a few more moments, Rosa writes down the description of the man in great detail and she hopes that maybe Terry can do a sketch of the man she saw. "Miss Dean, I thank you for the information you gave me. This will help out greatly. When we find and prosecute them, you can come by the station and sign some papers. We'll take this asshole to court and I will defend you." Rosa wasn't sure if she was able to do that, but the look on Rachel's face was all it took. The woman smiles and stands to wrap her arms around Rosa.

The detective tenses not used to any sort of affection from strangers, but she wraps an arm around her and pats her back gently. It was comforting to the woman to know someone is standing up for her and when she pulls away a text comes through and it's Amy's response. "It's a dog… the tattoo is a Aztec symbol of the Nahuatl calendar. October 16th…" Rachel looks at her with a confused expression, but Rosa is already taking her leave out the door. "That's in two days." Rosa knows the man that attacked this woman is somehow part of the Brooklyn Butcher

Rosa did leave a number for the woman to call if she thought of anything else, but right now she needed to get back to the station so Terry can work on the sketch. If they get a sketch, she can head to the rave tomorrow night undercover. Things were shaping up quickly for Rosa and she feels the adrenaline coursing through her veins. She is excited and like a bloodhound on the trail, she heads to her bike with a clear mind. She would have to convince Terry to do this without Holt's knowledge. Rosa hates going behind her Captain's back, but she needed to do this.

•••

Once she was back at the station, Rosa immediately goes to the bullpen to find Terry. She finds him in the break room and she gasps for breath when she stopped herself in her tracks. He is looking at her, raising an eyebrow as he pours himself a cup of coffee. "Terry, can you do a sketch for me? Only thing is, Holt can't know about this." The Lieutenant grunts in frustration, taking a sip of coffee. He didn't know what Rosa had up her sleeve, but he knew that Rosa had her reasons.

"Might I ask what for?" Terry asks and leans against the counter.

"I might have information on the Brooklyn Butcher…." her voice softens as it trails off and he is looking at her with disappointment.

"You know you're not supposed to be working that case. If you have any information, you need to contact Major Crimes. I'm not getting involved."

Terry's words were pretty serious, and Rosa feels slightly defeated. She takes out her notepad and shows Terry the symbols and explains the description of their possible perp. He has so many questions now and he is sure that Rosa might have the answers to a lot of them. Terry isn’t familiar with ancient symbols and the like, but it does seem rather intriguing that Rosa came up on this supposedly all on her own. “So, how’d you come by this?” Terry asks, almost in an accusing-tone. She tenses and knows she has to tell him about Amy helping her, and she sighed, pulling a chair out to tell him in detail.

“Amy has been helping me when she can. At first it was something just to take her mind off Jake, but she’s done a lot of research on this. I can’t go to Major Crimes, Lieut. I’m going to solve this on my own if I have to.” 

This is a whole new ballgame and Terry knows this. If Rosa got into deep shit with these people they’re after with no backup, he wasn’t sure what will happen. He knew the right thing to do and he had to have Rosa’s back because he knew she’d do the same for him. It’s how their little office family worked. They were always there for each other just like how Rosa is there for Amy and Charles was there for Jake. “Alright. I’ll keep this under wraps for now. If you need any kind of backup, Diaz… don’t hesitate to reach me. I’ll do my best to keep Holt out of it. He doesn’t need to know right now with everything that has happened with Jake.” 

Rosa feels an intense amount of relief and she nods her head as she relaxes. Only for a moment, relaxation can happen because she needed to get back to work. She stands on her feet, clears her throat and heads back to her desk without causing too much attention on herself. She continues to work at her own pace, checking the time on her phone. She sees a text from Amy again and it was whatever she wanted for dinner. It was something different than what she normally gets and she smiles giving her a thumbs up emoji. For the rest of the shift, she stayed quiet even as Charles became suspicious over her talk with Terry. He didn’t really say anything though since he is still hurt over Jake.

•••

Finally it was time to leave. She made sure to stop and pick up things for dinner and Amy’s order from the Mexican restaurant. Rosa felt it was easier to get something from there as well and orders something light. She is happy to be able to go home because she truly missed having Amy around. The vibe at work became a lot different than it has been. At times it was aggressive and toxic then others Rosa just wished she was home. She can see why Amy had quit the force simply because the way it felt around here now wasn’t the same when everyone was together. This still makes Rosa think that she shouldn’t have meddled in Amy’s business, but when she saw those bruises the first time… Rosa closes her eyes trying to rid the image from her mind again. She is just so angry with Jake.

It was late getting home to the apartment. The restaurant took a bit longer than usual for pickup, but once she gathered their orders she was back on the road. Even though the place was ten minutes away, evening traffic made it seem like an hour with all the stops she had to make, but she made it to her apartment building and parked bike outside. She sighs with relief, taking her helmet off before pulling her leg over. She smiles and fishes her apartment keys from her leather jacket as she moves down the hallway. She is humming to herself, something that she doesn’t normally do, but she is feeling a little bit better now that she has Terry on her side about this whole case. 

She opens the door and steps in. Arlo is barks a few times and he is wagging his tail happily. Rosa greets him with a few pets and scratches on his head and places dinner on the table in the kitchen. “Ames, I’m home.” she says, but there was no answer. She calls out to Amy again, this time checking her bedroom. There was no answer once more, but she hears a guttural noise coming from the bathroom down the hallway. “Amy?” She didn’t know what or who that was, but she decides to see. Arlo is at the bathroom door whining like a puppy and that tells her that Amy is definitely inside. 

When she opens the door, she is stunned to see Amy where she was. On the floor, a crying mess with her head between her legs. There is a foul smell coming from the toilet and it appeared that Amy had been vomiting all evening. A sadness overcame Rosa and she slowly gets down on her knees in front of her friend at her level and shoos Arlo away for a moment. “Amy….” Rosa says, taking her friend’s hand that was covered in gunk from being sick. Rosa didn’t care though. Right now, Amy needed someone. She feels Amy squeeze her hand and that told Rosa to come closer. Amy’s sobs were awful and she looks up at Rosa with these darkened eyes where mascara had ran down her cheeks.

“Rosa…” Amy says quietly as she tries to hold her nausea. Even though Amy is took sick to speak, Rosa crawls closer to her and wraps an arm around her friend. “Hey… have you been like this all evening?” Amy nods her head slowly, sniffing loudly. She hadn’t seen Amy like this since the nightmare she had, but now it seems like a whole new level that Rosa had to figure out on her own if Amy couldn’t tell her what was going on. There was no judgement in Rosa’s eyes, just concern for her best friend. “I didn’t know you were sick or I’d stay home today.” Rosa knows that Mexican food will just make it worse and decides to save the food for tomorrow. Amy will have to eat light.

Amy continues to sob, but every time she takes in a breath she looks up at Rosa as if she wants to say something. “You can tell me anything.” Rosa says as she combs back Amy’s hair. For a brief moment, Amy rushed herself to the toilet again and lurches forward. She upchucked nothing because her stomach was empty so all it was this nasty dry heave she was experiencing. Rosa is holding back Amy’s hair in case it was something, but she was more comforting to Amy than anything. Amy feels like hell and has been for hours even earlier in the day. At least she had only texted Rosa, so she didn’t know what had been going on. 

“I have to tell you something,” she says and buries her face into Rosa’s jacket. Rosa knows she’ll have to wash it later, but right now that didn’t matter. She wanted Amy to feel better somehow, so she stands on her feet and gets her a cool washcloth and places it gently to her friend’s forehead and sits back down next to her. “Rosa, you’re going to be so mad at me.” Rosa shakes her head. How can she be mad at Amy? 

“No way. I could never be mad at you,” assured Rosa as she tucks a few sweaty strands of hair behind Amy’s ear. She dabs the washcloth several times and watches as Amy closes her eyes at the feeling. Amy doesn’t even know how to explain what has happened when Karen texted her. She’s been thinking about how to tell Rosa what Karen said about Jake, but she knows the detective isn’t going to believe it. That it’s a flat out lie to make Amy feel guilty about leaving him. It’s going to be a natural reaction, but Amy knows she has to tell her even if it’s going to be a bad one.

With a soft sigh, Amy opens her eyes. “Well, a few days ago… Jake’s mom texted me. She told me how horrible Jake is doing and that…” She looks at Rosa, trying to gauge her reaction. Her face was expressionless despite the fact she feels concerned for her friend. Rosa’s stoic face is looking through Amy as she speaks about Jake. “Um, Karen said that Jake.. tried to commit suicide and I have to say that I don’t know how to feel about it.” Amy _does_ feel empty if anything. That this is all her fault and she doesn’t know what she’d do if Jake actually had killed himself. She wouldn’t know how to live with the burden of knowing she was responsible for his death.

Amy releases a couple pent up sobs when Rosa doesn’t respond right away. She is trying to wrap her mind around what Amy is saying. She doesn’t know whether to feel concerned for Amy or angry at Karen for attempting to drag her back down that road. “Is there any proof of this? She’s probably just saying things, Amy. Jake is a manipulative scumbag. Don’t fall for it. I don’t want you to get dragged back to him.” There is emotion swelling in Rosa’s throat and she does her best to keep from faltering, but Amy can see it in her eyes that Rosa is serious about her stern advice. Amy shrugs her shoulders and buries her face in her hands. 

“I don’t know. I’m still worried about him, Rosa. Can you blame me?” 

This conversation needed to be derailed immediately. There was no way she was going to allow Amy to go back to Jake. She has said this to herself many times that it would be the last thing she would do. They could go see him - but they have to see him together. There was no way Amy was going alone and he would continue his god awful behavior toward her. Rosa knows she is being selfish because she is aware of Amy’s feelings toward Jake. She loves him still and it was going to be a long, drawn out process before those feelings fade. That’s what Rosa really wants deep down. 

She wants Amy to despise Jake just as much as she does, but maybe the real reason Rosa can’t stand him is because he was the one who Amy fell in love with? Rosa blinks, realizing the epiphany she just had. Was she that much of an asshole? Rosa realized this about herself too late in the game, but maybe she can make up for it. If truth be known she was just as manipulative. She was just blinded by her own pride. She was so busy trying to keep Amy away from Jake so she can forget about him, erase him from her memory only to make things so much worse for her. It was a withdrawal symptoms from being away from someone you loved.

If she was in Amy’s situation she would want to see if the person she loved was alright. Rosa shifts in her spot as she listens to Amy’s cries. “I’m sorry, Ames. If you truly want to, we can go see Jake.” She looks up instantly, unsure if what Rosa was saying was true. “I realize that if this was me, I would want to see if my lover was alright despite everything. I’m sorry. I didn’t realize how cruel I was.” Amy wipes away the tears and smeared mascara from her cheeks with the back of her hand before leaning up to kiss Rosa on her cheek. It was sweet and it made Rosa's heart flutter for a brief second as she tried to force those feelings down.

“Promise me one thing,” Rosa says as she captures Amy’s cheek in the palm of her hand. A defeated sigh escapes her, but she knows this is what Amy wants as the other woman wraps a gentle hand around Rosa’s wrist. “Please be super careful when we **both** go see him. I don’t want another repeat of what happened in the office.”


	10. Backpedaling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy and Rosa visit Jake to check up on him. It is a very intense meeting, but fortunately for Karen and Jake, Rosa is behaving accordingly for Amy's sake. Once home, Amy delivers Rosa some devastating news that might force Rosa to become a little unhinged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay on this. Like I mentioned in my Hall Pass fic, things have been hectic and I've been battling a nasty head cold for the last week. I'm on the mend though, but I hope you guys enjoy the chapter. :)

It was strange how quickly Amy recovered from her illness once Rosa decided it was best to go see Jake. She detested the idea so much, she almost became sick herself at the thought of Amy being in the same room with that asshole. “Hey,” Amy begins as she pulls on the sleeve of Rosa’s jacket. They were on their way to the Peralta’s, but the way Rosa had been behaving the entire way made Amy stop. “I know you’re concerned.” She can tell Rosa isn’t pleased simply be the woman’s stoic expression which has hardened within the last hour of their walk.

Even though she might not let Amy see it, she is more afraid than concerned. Jake is a monster and no matter what, Rosa can’t bring it to herself to believe the sole fact that he tried to commit suicide. It wasn’t adding up to her, but she could be wrong and if she was, she would own up to it. Right now, she is using her own logic to assess this situation and what she was coming up with wasn’t anything good. “Yeah,” Rosa replies softly as she stepped up on the porch with Amy and she rings the doorbell. “I just want you to be safe. I’m going to be with you the entire time.”

A small smile appears across Amy’s face. She always felt safe with Rosa even when she was at her own worst and the detective reassured her that nothing will happen as long as she was around. Seeing the Amy smile instinctively made Rosa smile only for a brief moment. It fades quite quickly when Karen peeks through the blinds before opening the door. “Oh, Amy. I’m glad you could come.” Karen seemed struck with amazement when she saw Rosa standing there with her arms folded so coldly across her chest. 

“Rosa,” she says with a little surprise in her tone and opens the door for the two women. It has been a long time since they had both been at the Peralta’s. Rosa only nods and leans against the wall behind her as she watches Amy take in familiar surroundings. Jake must be around somewhere, but Rosa didn’t care at all. It was really awkward standing around just waiting. “Would you two like something to drink? Wine or anything?” Alcohol would be nice right now to be able to deal with this stupid situation, Rosa needed to keep a good head on her shoulders. 

She declines with a little wave of her hand and takes a seat on the couch with Amy. She supposed that Karen wanted to talk before Jake came down, or he was trying to get his web of lies in order so he can spin them in Amy’s direction. “How’s Jake doing?” Amy asks as she takes the glass of water from Karen with a nod and takes a little sip. Rosa sinks back into the couch, seeing how worried Amy is about Jake. She knows she is being selfish because of her feelings, but she can’t help it.

As the two discuss Jake’s mental state and overall health, Rosa stays quiet and tries to judge Karen by her facial expressions. Rosa has been in many instances where body language can be misidentified, but she has had similar experiences after so many interrogations. At one point during the conversation, Karen would rub her hands together whenever she spoke about certain things, as if she was nervous about the outcome of her so-called story. Was it a tell? Was this some kind of indicator that the whole suicide thing was total bullshit? 

Rosa grits her teeth, not saying a word, letting them continue their conversation. Her eyes shift to Amy, wondering if she is buying into Karen’s story. “I’m sorry for what happened,” Karen said very apologetically. “You know Jake loves you, Amy. He’s completely torn up with what he’s done.” Amy curls her feet inward, looking down at her knees. This tells Rosa she is feeling guilty which is a feeling that Karen is placing on Amy unfairly. Rosa chews on the inside of her cheek, and crosses a leg over the other. 

“He’s attacked me twice, Karen. You can’t be okay with this. This is the whole reason why he was suspended from work.” 

There is a slight pause in Amy’s voice, and Rosa is glad Amy is sticking to her own decision about this. She isn’t going to allow Karen to manipulate her into going back with Jake. “You have to understand the amount of work and pressure he has been under, Amy.” Karen tries to defend Jake’s horrendous actions which makes Rosa’s hand form a tight fist. She closes her eyes and takes a short breath, trying to calm her nerves before says something she regrets. Rosa knows that Amy can handle herself, so she takes a hand places it on her shoulder and gives it a tight confident squeeze.

:”Pressure? Still,” Amy said a bit flabbergasted at Karen’s response. “He shouldn’t take it out on people that he should love.” Her voice waivers a bit, but Amy stays strong. Karen is silent, but to this second, she still thinks that what happened with Jake was a complete fluke. Or at the very least, she is abiding by Jake’s pleads in attempt to make him seem innocent in all of this when he really isn’t. Rosa still wishes to this day, they had that video from the evidence room. That was sure proof that Jake was doing these unspeakable things. Rosa looks over at Karen and opens her mouth to speak. “Karen, you of all people should have known this might happen…”

Amy tenses at the words and she looks at Rosa, desperately trying to cease the conversation before things turned ugly. She knows what it was about. Jake’s father. He was the worst of the bunch and it seemed like the apple didn’t fall from the tree. After all the emotional abuse Karen had gone through with her husband, Rosa isn’t surprised now that Jake took after his father in the physical department. Of course, Rosa wasn’t giving Jake excuses. He was still to blame here for what happened to Amy in both cases. 

“You have no opinion in this conversation, detective.” Karen says. Her tone was a bit stiff. Her face wooden as hell as she stared Rosa down. Rosa must have struck a nerve. She can feel Amy pulling on her arm, trying to get her to stop, but she wasn’t sure if that was possible now. Rosa opened her mouth, and now some might big truth bombs were about to explode. “No opinion? I’m the one who discovered this whole thing the first time. Your son beat the living shit out of her, Karen.” Abruptly in an angry fashion, she stands on her feet. “How can you _still_ defend him!?” 

The vibe in the room, which was already pretty intense became even more hard to handle for Amy. She knows Rosa is trying to protect her, but honestly the stubborn woman is just causing more unnecessary drama. She sighs softly and stands, taking Rosa’s hand. The feeling of Amy’s grabbing her hand brought Rosa down. She is standing there with an absurd expression on her face. It was directly toward herself mostly because she couldn’t believe how much she spoke out of turn. It was like Amy had snapped her out of a blind rage with a simple touch. She looks over at Amy, seeing these calm eyes staring back at her. “I’m sorry,” she says. “I didn’t mean to blow up like that.”

Amy shakes her head, ridding the little mistake away. It wasn’t Rosa’s fault. It was the heat of the moment, but she is lucky she was able to stop it before it brewed something that Amy couldn’t manage to clean up later. Rosa could have done something she regretted. “Is Jake here?” Amy asks as she looks over at Karen whilst massaging Rosa’s backside in little circles. It was a calming feeling, and Amy was hitting all the right places that made her entire spine roll with pleasure. “He’s resting, but I’ll get him. Just wait here for a few minutes.” Karen stands and makes her way to Jake’s childhood bedroom where had been staying in the last few days.

“You almost scared me,” Amy said suddenly once Karen left the area. Rosa rubs the corners of her temples wondering what came over her just a bit ago, unsure if it was really a good idea if they were here or not.

“I just... I panicked and I reacted.” Rosa said, taking the responsibility right then that she almost caused a huge scene for no reason. She inhales, trying to calm her nerves before Jake comes out. She knows she’s going to need a level head when he starts talking because she doesn’t know how long it would be before she starts throwing fists at him again like she did in the evidence room. “We shouldn’t even be here.”

“We have to make sure Jake is okay. You promised me.” Amy said and turns Rosa’s face to look at her. “You’re the only person I trust, Rosa. I’m glad you’re here with me and I know damn well I wouldn’t be able to do this on my own.” As if it were a normal thing to Rosa now, Amy wraps her arms around the woman and embraces her for a good couple of minutes. It took Rosa a bit to realize what was happening before she places an arm around Amy in return. Fortunately, it was a welcomed feeling and it made Rosa feel ten times better than she did when Karen was in the room. Actually, she had noticed the intensity of the room had diminished when she had left.

As much as it pains and irritates Rosa, she did promise Amy and it makes her groan in quiet protest. “Alright,” she says with defeat in her tone, “but just know I will be watching and listening. If he makes one false move or says anything that might upset you, I will step in.” Amy smiles at the way Rosa becomes so overwhelming protective of her. With a soft sigh, Amy steps back from Rosa and turns to see Jake standing in the hallway coming toward her. He didn’t appear to be the same Jake as before. He seemed to be fine from Rosa’s point of view and there was no indication that his health was declining.

She notices that he is wearing long sleeves, but Rosa isn’t sure if that is because they’re for covering up evidence of attempted suicide or to hide the fact there isn’t any. Amy never said how he tried to do it, but at this point Rosa isn’t convinced. “Hey,” said Jake a little softer than usual as he stepped into the living room. He stood a few feet away, not wanting to provoke Rosa into anything. Amy’s face was in pure shock. She can see the condition he was in, but she is still in love with him, so it was obvious that she was going to feel sorry that he was like this. She is too sweet for her own good and this was making Rosa feel uncomfortable for the situation.

“Amy, I’m glad you’re here.” Jake said. His eyes shift to Rosa, but he doesn’t even greet her. Their confrontation in the evidence room still strikes a bit of fear into him that any moment, Rosa might charge like an angry rhino. “Is it alright if I talk to you in private.” Rosa grunts in her spot, folding her arms roughly across her chest and she stares him down. She couldn’t believe it. Already, he is laying out conditions of this little meeting, but Rosa knows there’s no way in hell that she is letting Amy out of her sight. _Why do you have to be so fucking anal about this?_ she asks herself. All she wants to do is make sure Amy is safe.

There’s no telling what Jake is going to do or say to try to persuade Amy that he was back to his old ways before he changed. Amy looks over her shoulder at Rosa whose entire body was tensed. It looked like she was asking for permission, but she knew that Amy didn’t need to ask for it. Rosa shrugs her shoulders in response to the look. “It’ll be just a few minutes, Rosa.” Amy tries to reassure her friend that things were going to manageable while she talks with Jake and reluctantly, Rosa releases her death-like stare on the man who brought her so much anger in the past couple months.

Undesirably, Karen leads Rosa into the kitchen to allow the two to talk in peace. They can at least owe them that for the time being while Jake tries to make up for the fucking bullshit he’s done. Amy might be able to forgive him, but Rosa knows it will be hard for her to. Forgive, not forget they always say, but to have Jake continuously do this to Amy over the course of _**months**_? How can she trust him? Rosa sits down at the kitchen table and crosses one leg over the other and folds her arms. Her stoic expression returning once more as she purses her lips to keep from speaking to the older woman. 

“Jake has thought a lot about what he’s done,” said Karen. Again, she was defending him. Abuse of any nature shouldn’t be given a second chance. If she was in Amy’s situation right now, she would never even think twice to be here today. She wouldn’t let a man hold her down like this and keep her coming back. This was certainly manipulation in every single definition of the word. However, she has never been in Amy's shoes before, so she doesn't really understand. She is trying though. “He misses her and he says he’s not the same without Amy. I don’t know what else to do for him. His health keeps declining.” Rosa remains silent, knowing the statement about Jake's health was a blatant lie. She would much rather be at work right now working on some stupid, obscure case or going over evidence of the Brooklyn Butcher. 

_Just think about the case,_ Rosa thought with a slight nod to herself. The next day, she would have to go to that rave that would be going on at that Aztec themed bar. Their masked man in the video lured them to this point. He was clumsy, and Rosa wasn’t sure if it had been the killer or not, but he was a connection regardless. She was sure of it and she was going to go with or without anyone’s say, especially Major Crimes or Captain Holt’s. At least Terry knew about it and that she could call him if anything happened. She could at least have him to trust if anyone in that damn place.

To Rosa, the conversation was pretty bland and stale. That was most conversations with human interaction usually except for a certain, rare few. She dropped her head back, raising her eyes to the ceiling as she continued to wait which seemed like hours. How long were they actually at the Peralta’s? Either Jake hadn’t been very convincing, or he was so wrapped up in his sob story, that Amy was probably starting to believe him. Rosa wants to ask how Jake tried to commit suicide, but she knows she is treading on thin ice. It was a sketchy thing to ask, but there was physical evidence unless another method was involved. 

She knows she is being harsh with her logic and reasoning about this whole thing, but she can’t trust Jake as far as she can throw him. Rosa is terrified of letting Amy back into his life after all the pain and trauma he has caused her and she would be damned if he had succeeded. Keeping up with this charade, Rosa stands on her feet and paces around the kitchen in a thoughtful way, trying to give Karen the impression that she is trying to understand Jake’s perspective without really even saying a word. 

After a few minutes, she sees Amy walk into the kitchen with Jake behind her and this prompts Rosa to immediately go to inspect her friend. “Are you okay?” Rosa whispers the question, taking a hand gently at her shoulder and caressing it. Jake notices the peculiar touch, finding it strange that even Rosa is behaving that way. Have they gotten closer since Amy had left him? The other girl only smiles, giving her friend a nod. 

“I’m fine, Rosa.” Amy whispers, taking the woman’s hand. These soft gestures between the two women don’t go unnoticed by Jake Amy releases Rosa’s hand before turning her attention to Karen who stood from her chair. “Sorry for the wait. We had a long talk and worked through some things. I still have a lot to think about, but I just feel better knowing Jake is alright.” Rosa sighed. How can someone be so incredible selfless still get the worst kind of treatment? Immediately, Rosa had to calm herself down because that thought alone ignited a fireball of rage inside her. She doesn’t even say goodbye to the Peralta’s. She turns on her heels and simply leaves, but not before making sure that Amy was in toe.

The evening air was a welcoming embrace when the two stepped outside and Rosa sighs deeply in thought. What did Amy mean that she had a lot to think about? She looks over at the girl who seemed a little more relaxed than she did. The constant worry about Jake was behind her, so maybe now she can finally move on. “I’m proud of you,” said Amy and she lightly bumped shoulders with Rosa playfully as they walked to her motorcycle a little walking distance away. “It was really intense when I walked into the kitchen. What did you and Karen talked about?” Amy asks curiously, prodding Rosa in the ribs with a pointed finger.

The gesture made Rosa chuckle, but a hard roll of the soon followed after. “She did most of the talking, but I ignored it. Karen proceeded to persuade my decision about Jake being a changed man, but you already know my thoughts on that.” Amy did know how she felt about Jake. Even if he _were_ to be a changed man, she wouldn't bet anything against Rosa’s morals. Her compass never spun out of whack and Amy was glad that Rosa was someone that knew the right thing from wrong, even if she can be a little stubborn about it.

_A little stubborn is putting it mildly,_ Amy thought to herself as she carefully threaded an arm through Rosa’s. It was a friendly gesture and they have done it before numerous occasions, but the feeling of Amy’s arm looped through hers always made Rosa’s heart leap ten feet until it met the center of her throat. She always wondered if Amy did that on purpose, but was just simply wanting some friendly comfort due to what she had just dealt with, so Rosa doesn’t protest. She loosens her arm slightly while her hand shoved in her pockets and she smiles at the accepted comfort. 

“We do have to talk when we get home,” said Amy softly as they saw the familiar motorcycle sitting in the spot where Rosa had parked. Those words were never too fortunate to hear. Rosa always heard them right before something bad always happened, like a break up. But she and Amy weren’t dating, so that wouldn’t be the reason for it. If this had anything to do with her talk with Jake, she really didn’t want to listen, but she needed to be that friend. Amy slips out of Rosa’s arm when she is handed the spare helmet and she nods at the words unsurely. The nice feeling she had felt earlier was replaced by a rotting sensation in her stomach. It was something unnecessary and unnerving and the only reason to combat this was with alcohol. 

She supposed when she got home before this talk, a few beers are in order. The ride home was awkward. Rosa didn’t say anything much, but she can feel Amy’s hand caressing her shoulders during the short drive as if she is already trying to make up for what was going to happen. It didn’t settle well. It was a dooming feeling, like something inevitable was about to occur and Rosa couldn’t do anything to stop it. She always hated it when things happen in her life and she can’t do anything to control them, but she has learned to accept that things do happen out of her reach. Her hands grip tightly on the handlebars at the thought as she pulls up to her apartment building and the two hop off. They were both quiet.

As they head toward Rosa’s door down the long hallway, you can hear Arlo whining on the other side. He yelps in excitement to hear his master and Amy had returned and Rosa fishes for her keys to unlock the door. “Hey, buddy.” Rosa says. Arlo was a sight for sore eyes as she drops down on her knees at his level to rub his face and gives him a big kiss on the head. Amy smiles at the two. It’s funny to watch them interact because in reality, it appeared Rosa had the same kind of time management skills as Arlo did. A couple hours apart and they felt like they’ve been gone for two whole days without seeing each other. 

Arlo’s tail wags with full enthusiasm and he greets Amy who scratches the side of his head. Her allergies have become so well managed after living with Rosa for a couple months. They’re still terrible, but she is able to deal with Arlo for more than ten minutes without sneezing and coughing her lungs up and not feeling like she’s going to die. Rosa stands on her feet, slipping out of her leather jacket and heads for the fridge for a couple beers. It was the one thing on her mind after that going through that whole mess. “Don’t worry, Alro. I’ll take you out soon. This evening we’ll go for a walk.” The word made Arlo’s ears perk up at the words and he does a little happy dance trot with his feet on the tile flooring in the kitchen.

There is a smile on Amy’s face when she follows Rosa into the kitchen area, but when she is offered a beer, Amy rejects the offer with a little raise of her hand. “I’m alright,” she says. It surprised Rosa because never really did reject her offer of tasty adult beverages, but she shrugged her shoulders and placed the other beer in the door of the fridge for later. Instead, Amy gets herself a cup of the tea she has been drinking lately. It was a smelly herbal tea with a funny name she couldn’t pronounce that had a lot of healthy benefits and she had no idea why Amy was turned on to the nasty aroma. 

She leaned against the counter behind her and watched Amy as she made her tea, taking a swig of her beer. Rosa is anticipating the talk Amy wants to have, because she really doesn’t want to have it - no matter what it’s about. Even if it was good news, which she knew it wasn’t. The sound of Amy’s tone by the way she said immediately told her it was anything but. Rosa clears her throat and taps the side of the bottle in her hand. “I know you don’t want to talk about this, Rosa. Neither do I,” she begins as she lets one of the tea bags steep for a few minutes in some hot water from the microwave. “I do feel better knowing that Jake is okay, but seeing him again really stirred up feelings.”

Amy tried to keep her feelings in check when she talked to Jake, but in the end she had caved again. She feels like a coward for it, but her heart is still lies with the man who had treated her so poorly when she deserved the world. Rosa’s eyes shift away, becoming fully aware of where this conversation was leading up to. She tilts her head back, taking a long chug of beer to try and deter these developing feelings which she hasn’t been accustomed to until Amy has been in a regular in her life. “I still love him,” Amy admits out loud for the first time in months. She has been so scared to say to Rosa, but it was time now. “We talked and we decided to try marriage counseling.”

Marriage counseling? Rosa’s hand gripped so tightly around the neck of the bottle, she thought for sure it was going to shatter in her hand. She feels intense feelings, mostly betrayal and disappointment. Amy knows better, but she is simply being manipulated again. This was going to be difficult to deal with. Rosa tries to speak, but even with the amount of beer she has drank already to calm her nerves, her mouth feels dry. She can’t form any kind of sentence to respond until she rubbed her temples to try and make sense of it all. For Amy’s sake, she is trying to be civil about it, but it is extremely hard. “What brought this on?” Rosa was finally able to create a coherent sentence, but she asked it so quickly, it almost sounded like a jumbled mess. 

Amy looks at her with these eyes that asked for help, but Rosa wasn’t sure if she is able to give it to her. She swallows, taking a sip of tea before answering Rosa’s question in the most simplest ways possible, even if she was shaking at her own response. “I’m pregnant.”


	11. Roofies & Regrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amy and Rosa have a heart to heart discussion, but Rosa seems adamant about wanting to help and stay in her life regardless of what happens. Rosa is there for Amy. Meanwhile, Rosa goes undercover as a rave goer, scoping out the Aztec night club in order to find clues on the whereabouts of the man that was seen on the park footage.

Time seemed to have permanently froze and every little movement had been slowed down five times their normal speed for Rosa. She felt lightheaded, almost as if her equilibrium had been replaced by an invisible thing of jello. There was silence for a long time and Rosa thought she might speak up before things become awkward - but it was already too late for that. When Amy told her that she was going back to Jake for marriage counseling, that’s when every single nerve in her entire system tensed and they were holding onto that feeling like an old grudge. 

“How far are you?” Rosa asked finally which seemed like a century in an attempt to muster up anything at all. She was surprised that was what came out of her mouth. She was terrified of the answer, because she knew Amy wasn’t far. The woman wasn’t showing a bump that could be easy evidence, but the way Amy has been behaving lately, it makes a little more sense to her now. Amy look guilty, as if what had happened to her was all wrong. She knew Rosa would never make feel like that, but this talk was going just as she expected. Amy sighs, taking a hand across her belly gently and Rosa’s eyes shift down to it.

Amy’s eyes gauge Rosa’s expressions before she said anything. “Four weeks. So, it had to have been the night before you found out about everything.” She felt bloated, like the little alien creature inside her was taking every ounce of energy she had to even deal with this conversation. Regardless, Amy felt a special connection to the baby already and she already convinced herself that she was going to keep it. Amy had always wanted kids and this was just going to be a huge test for her personally. At least Rosa was talking to her despite how the detective was feeling about the whole thing.

_So, not only is Amy going back to someone who abused the fuck out of her, she’s pregnant with the asshole’s kid._ Rosa wasn’t upset with Amy. No, that was silly to even suggest. She was furious with Jake and she knows now that she will never forgive him. If he hurts Amy again especially with this baby, she might end up killing him by the end of this pregnancy. Rosa pushes herself off the counter and moves past the other woman. “Rosa,” she says. She could tell that Rosa was angry, or at the very least a little disappointed. The detective turns to look at Amy, and shrugs her shoulders helplessly as she grabs Arlo’s lead off the wall near the back door. “I’m going to take Arlo for a walk.”

Amy sighs, but only nods.as she didn’t want to press the issue further until Rosa has calmed down enough to talk to her. She figures Rosa must feel regret for taking her in and caring for someone who was (and still is) broken inside. Her pieces were hard to repair and Amy knows it’s not right to have a kid specifically for that reason, but she hoped this pregnancy would heal her and make her feel whole again. It was most likely wishful thinking on Amy’s part, but she wanted Rosa to understand that. Plus, the baby will need its father even though he is just as lost as she is. Amy watches as Rosa hooks Arlo’s lead onto his collar and they depart out the back door.

“Fuck,” Amy breathes out She looks down at her belly, trying to understand it herself and even isn’t fully comprehending that she is pregnant with Jake’s kid. She wonders how long Rosa would be gone, but Amy will wait around until she does. Maybe she needs to simply clear her head. It usually helps someone to get some fresh air and try to decipher the emotions of the entire ordeal. Amy should probably do that too, but she wasn’t as comfortable walking down the street at night like Rosa was. Amy finishes up her tea that she made and decides to sit on the couch until Rosa returned. She wasn’t going to bed until she heard what she had to say.

The evening air was a welcomed relief when Rosa takes Arlo to the little section of the apartment building to let him do his business. She stood there, her hand tightly around his lead with the other in her pocket as she tried to sort out all of these thoughts. She didn’t know how to feel other than disappointment and anger. She tried to understand Amy’s point of view, but she just couldn’t. Going back to someone who abused you and now you’re pregnant with that person’s kid? There was too much at stake now with this innocent kid on the way. 

Does Amy think a kid would change the way Jake has treated her? Maybe, but Rosa doesn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. It may make all the difference in the world, but relying on a child to fix your marriage seems like the wrong way to go about it. That’s added responsibility and pressure on that kid when it’s older and finds out about everything happening now. Rosa takes her hand, massaging the front of her head as she felt a splitting migraine coming. “Come on, Arlo.” Rosa says softly as she pets him gently. He stayed near Rosa as she exits the back gate and steps onto the sidewalk that wraps around the apartment complex. 

“You knew didn’t ya? That’s why you’re so protective over Amy.” Rosa says softly as Arlo sniffs the ground as they walk forward. A small smile tugged upward on Rosa’s lips. Everything did make sense to her now, though. Amy’s mood swings, her exhaustion and her eating habits have changed slightly. Rosa wonders how long she’s known and if Amy was just figuring out the right time to tell her or she had just found out. “Explains Amy’s restriction on alcohol consumption these days.” Rosa shook her head, but she felt better since stepping out the negative space in the apartment. She walked Arlo for another hour or two, just trying to collect herself and her emotions.

It took everything in Rosa to head back to the apartment. She knew she would have to confront what she was feeling. She dreads the short walk back, but made it safely and found Amy asleep on the couch. “Shh,” she whispers as she purses her lips at her finger. She pointed to circular bed on the floor and Arlo knew it was time to turn in. He gets a little dog treat for being good and he heads over and plops down in his comfort zone. Rosa slips out of her leather jacket and throws it onto the back of a chair before walking around the sofa with a blanket. She doesn’t want to wake Amy considering the woman does need as much rest as she can possibly get, but Rosa’s instincts kicked in and thought Amy would be more comfortable in her bed.

“Hey, Ames.” Rosa whispers and places a gentle hand on Amy’s shoulder and shakes her awake lightly. “Come to bed where it’s more comfortable. We’ll talk tomorrow.” Amy opens her eyes and stifles a yawn before looking into matching colored orbs that held nothing but love for her. She smiles and is helped to her feet, and Amy can tell Rosa is already trying to dote on her. “Rosa, you don’t have to take care of me. I was perfectly fine on the couch.” Rosa chuckles, shrugging her shoulders at the woman’s words. She didn’t care to be so doting. Rosa always wanted to make sure Amy was comfortable and safe. It was natural instinct.

Now, it’s going to be even more difficult to attempt if Amy truly desires to go back to Jake. It makes Rosa’s heart ache a little, but she understood despite the severity of the situation. She couldn’t help but imagine the way Jake treated Amy, he would be doing the same to her again while pregnant or even after the baby is born. It made a fire swell inside Rosa that she needed to desperately contain. Rosa lifts Amy up by her hands and wraps a spare blanket around her. Amy could see that Rosa is trying, but failing to keep her emotions in check. The woman was a hardass and you could barely tell what she was feeling most of the time, but right now Amy could see emotion filtering in.

“I’m sorry,” Amy whispers as she grabs tightly around on the blanket. “I didn’t know this was going to cause issues.”

“It’s not really,” Rosa replied as she beckoned the woman to follow her. “It’s just... I’m worried about you that’s all. I know you think Jake has changed, but if he lays another finger on you the wrong way, I’ll cut it off and shove it down his damn throat.” The words make Amy smile and she couldn’t help but lean into her friend for some kind of comfort. Rosa wraps her arms around Amy, holding her there for a moment. She’s never really had a friendship like this before and she wonders if that’s what it is even to her. 

Rosa can feel Amy’s heartbeat against her own as they stand there in the darkness of the bedroom and she breathes in deep, taking in Amy’s scent. “Let’s get to bed,” Rosa says after clearing her throat to break the awkward silence that suddenly came about. “Tomorrow we’ll talk further on it and maybe we’ll start making appointments with a doctor.”

•••

The next morning, Rosa was up early on the phone. It seemed she had called every hospital within a five mile radius, but she was clearly being picky about who would be Amy’s OBGYN. Amy was amused watching her as she sipped some coffee. There were a few times Rosa had gone overboard and Amy had to call back personally to apologize for her friend’s behavior. It seemed like none of them were going to satisfy Rosa, but Amy already had one in mind. “Rosa, you need to calm down. I’ve got it taken care of already.” Amy pipes up and Rosa looks at her from across the living room.

“You have one already? Why didn’t you tell me?” Rosa asked, feeling a little stupid she had gone through all of that for nothing.

“Honestly, it was just amusing watching you.” Amy laughs as she curls herself up in the chair near Arlo’s bed and Rosa scoffs lightly to herself. This woman decided to have fun by allowing her to call who knows how many doctors only to end up finding out that she already had one of her own? 

“Very funny, Santiago.” Rosa rolls her eyes with a little smile on her face. She found it only slightly annoying and sat her phone down to end the grand search. She stretches out her legs, looking at the time. Jake only had a few more days left on his suspension and he would be coming back to work soon. She wonders what Holt would think if and when Amy and Jake are back together, the whole suspension thing had been a waste of time. Perhaps, Holt would think it would have been better off, or maybe he wouldn’t care in the slightest. Unlike Rosa, Captain wasn’t one to get mixed in with people’s personal lives quite often.

Neither was Rosa herself, but when it came to the people she cared about, Rosa would do anything to make sure they’re safe and their quality of life is at its peak. “Well, who is it then?” Amy looks up from her phone, playing a few rounds of Kwazy Cupcakes. She still has no desire to go back to work, and instead has pursued other interests and careers once the baby is born. She has thought about it, about what she needed to do because she couldn’t just do nothing. Money was important and she needed a steady income to provide for herself and her kid. “Oh, I got in with Gina’s OBGYN. She’s highly recommended and Gina swears by her.” 

Rosa never thought about asking Gina. Amy seemed to already have those instincts as a parent and all Rosa could do is sit there and admire her from afar with this knowing smile on her face. If it wasn’t for Jake being a total basket case these days, Rosa knew Amy could handle her own, but this is where is she had to intervene. She didn’t want anything to do with Jake, but she will make damn sure he doesn’t do anything stupid or put excessive stress on Amy. She will be there for her, through thick and thin. “I’ve got a lot to do today,” said Rosa as she remembered the date. October 16th. Tonight was that damn rave she had decided to go to.

“If there’s anything you need, please just call my cell.” Rosa stands on her feet, taking little strides over to Amy and wraps her arms around her. “Don’t hesitate.” Amy took a minute to breath in Rosa’s scent. It was something she did occasionally before she left for work. Where Rosa was constantly on duty and on the street, Amy always feared that she wouldn’t have the same kind of backup now if something had happened to her. For some reason, Amy wanted to remember what her scent was just in case the unfathomable happened. It was a peculiar feeling that aroused in her every now and then, but for the most part, Amy ignored it.

•••

_“Are you sure about this, Diaz?”_

Decked out tribal makeup and in a sleek, gold bodysuit, Rosa had been entirely sure. She could hear the concern in Terry’s voice in her ear piece and she groans impatiently to herself as she waits outside the Aztec, the same bar that was detailed on the flyer Jake had found with the weird symbols. If anything, the Brooklyn Butcher could be connected to this bar from where it was found at the crime scene of the latest victim and it was up to her to find out. Holt didn’t know. He wasn’t going to find out until she was certain that whoever was leaving these cryptic clues behind was indeed related to their killer. 

“I’m positive, Terry. Don’t worry about me. This bodysuit is actually pretty form fitting.” Rosa said as she raises her arms to look up and down and around her. She wasn’t going to lie that she looked good in it, but the only place she was able to place her gun was actually in between her breasts. There was no holster, no bulletproof vest. It felt as if she was going into this place fully naked at 8pm at night. Rosa had texted Amy before she left the van that she was out on a case with Terry and she would be home late and Amy immediately understood it. 

As Rosa neared the bar, a few guys did move in on her but the stoic, resting bitch face that Rosa constantly perfected over the years warded them off. _They’re all animals,_ Rosa thought as she shakes her head, stepping into the long line of rave goers who were equally dressed in the same odd fashion as she was. There were a lot of varieties of Aztec-style costumes and Rosa caught sight of a few other bodysuit wearers. At least she didn’t feel like and oddball being the only one. She hands the man at the door her ID and a $5 cover charge and as she received her bracelet, she made her way inside the dark, flashy room.

The music wasn’t popping yet, but you could still hear what sounds like techno and there was a DJ setting everything up on stage with the works. Smoke makers, flashing LED lights that synced up with the music, you name it. The loudness was due mostly from the intense amount of people that Rosa had to thread herself through to get to the nearest bar to order herself a drink. She acted casual, scoping out the place as she usually does when she went undercover. She keeps her drink close to her, making sure that she wasn’t going to get roofied. The last thing she wanted to happen was to wake up in someone’s basement tied up without any sort of backup or help.

She places a hand to her ear and speaks quietly into the mic for Terry. “I’m going to go ahead and start making light talk. See if I can’t get any kind of information.” Terry replies to her with a usual _’be careful’_ and that he was there if she needed him. At least she was able to count on someone to be here for her as she did this crazy suicide mission. It was going to be difficult with a vast majority of people and with it going on at 10pm, she could hear the DJ starting up the music to get the party going. There were a ton of glow sticks and she was given several stacks of circular ones to hang from her wrists and neck.

After a good twenty minutes, she was able to start making light conversation with a group of people that Terry was eavesdropping on from the two-way mic. There wasn’t much she could go on about asking for information, so she tries to get details on the bar owner, hoping she could make a solid connection around that instead. “Oh, the bar owner is a complete and total dick, but he knows how to keep his customers happy.” Rosa listens carefully, making sure that Terry was listening too by tapping the mic button twice in case Terry wasn’t paying attention. “He should be around tonight. Usually makes his appearances at these sort of things.”

Rosa nods her head and moves on to the next group of people. This time it was a couple of women dressed like sphinx twins. _They’re actually pretty attractive,_ Rosa thought for a moment before reminding herself why she was there in the first place. _Don’t get sidetracked._ “Excuse me. Can you tell me anything about the owner of this place? I’ve been here a few times, so I was thinking of getting a job here.” The two women circle Rosa as if they were inspecting her and Rosa realized they had been waitresses. 

All of the waitresses were dressed like the great sphinx. She supposed it was an easier way to pick them apart in a crowd that was impossible to navigate through. Rosa tensed up when she felt a hand slide up her back. She could feel it through the latex suit, but it was extremely inappropriate regardless. “She definitely has the body, but her personality seems a little sour.” The two spoke in unison together and it was definitely off-putting to say the least. These two could cause a little trouble for Rosa if she didn’t keep an eye on them. Rosa tries to smile and names off several of the drinks that the Aztec serves regularly with the main ingredients in them right on que. 

“So, you’re here for the bartender position?”

With a little nod, Rosa was beckoned to follow the two women who seemed impressed with her knowledge in the very particular drinks that they had served. She had studied them on her own time when she was stuck in the office with nothing to do and it was a lot of time to make up for because there were lack of detectives in the field and at the office together with Jake gone. Rosa did have to pick up some slack though to keep the process running smoothly. Rosa is guided to one of the back office rooms and she wonders why they weren’t going to do this at another date considering it was a big night for the club. 

She taps the side of her mic again to alert Terry in quick Morse Code response to let him know that she was in. _”Watch yourself, Diaz. They already look suspicious to me.”_ Terry says and Rosa couldn’t agree more. She doesn’t respond to him so she can act normally. She doesn’t want to get caught with a wire or a mic of any kind because that would turn this situation into a pretty bad one. These people seemed paranoid. The two women that had escorted her to a back room had blades on them as she could see, but she wonders if they were part of the costume or simply used for their own protection. People can be weird as fuck out there.

“Wait here,” they command Rosa and they disappear out the back door. Rosa is left for around twenty minutes. She lets Terry know what happened and gives a brief description of the room she was in just in case something had gone wrong. _”Seems like a strange place to hold a job interview. There’s loading crates?”_ He repeated the details back to her in question just to make sure he didn’t misunderstand. Rosa nods, counting all the loading crates she sees. There had to be at least fifty of them piled up high to the ceiling against the back corner of this room. They were covered by a huge tarp so they were kept out of the public eye.

As Rosa inspects the crates further, she is blown away by what she finds. Drugs. Flunitrazepam to be percise. Why on earth would they have this back here? Unless they plan on dosing a lot of people at once. Rosa looks down at the drink in her hand and back to the door as she listens to the music blaring on. “Terry, don’t act on this yet. But I’ve found what easily looks like a hundred pounds or so in drugs alone.” If there were drugs, that means there were guns. Every officer new that. For the most part, most drug dealers weren’t stupid because they never used their product. That was the number one rule on the street. 

_”Diaz, get out of there or I’m coming in there now.”_

The detective groans in frustration, shaking her head. Rosa needed more time to scope this place before those two women came back with their head honcho. “Sorry, Terry. But I’m doing this. I need to find out more. I’m hot on something and I can’t let you distract me.” After she speaks, she jerks her mic from her ears and drops it on the ground behind the crates. She can hear Terry calling out to her, but it was no use. Rosa was so stubborn about this and she knew if she failed and something happened, she could easily end up getting suspended from her job or fired. She has to follow her instincts. 

Rosa places the tarp back in place, because she will have to deal with that mess later and right after she was able to position herself where she was before, the two women came back with the head guy himself. He was a clean cut man wearing a white suit. He was clean shaven, and had a certain poise and elegance to him. Rosa already found him annoying. “So, you must be the one interested in our opening position?” He asked as he stirred his cocktail gently. The two women were apparently his arm candy, latching on him like leeches. Rosa just nods her head, trying not to say more than she had to, however, she did notice something very interesting.

The man had a tattoo on his neck and it was the same one that was described to her by the woman she went and saw a week or so ago. It was the Aztec symbol of the dog on the Nahuatl calendar. That was the guy that had attacked Rachel Dean, the politician she had to get a witness statement from. He has to be related to the guy on the footage somehow they retrieved from park management. Rosa goes back through the details of the case in her mind, only answering questions when she is asked and not talking until it’s needed. “Honestly, you’d make a great bouncer instead of bartender. You have that strength about you. Am I right ladies?” 

As weird as it was, she was getting these strange seductive looks from the two women and she clears her throat. “Thank you, sir. I appreciate it, but I came specifically for the bartending job. It’s what I’m really good at.” Rosa said as she nods to the cocktail in the man’s hand. “Vesper right?” She noticed the thin, curled orange slice hanging off the side. _This guy must think he’s like James fucking Bond or something._ Rosa tried everything in her to keep from rolling her eyes. “Two parts Gin, one part Vodka, splash of Lillet.” Although it wasn’t shaken like James Bond preferred in the books and movies, this was actually the correct way of having a Martini for most. The man seemed impressed with her knowledge and he chuckled softly in response.

“Well, well. You do know your stuff. Let’s see. We’ll put you behind the bar as a little test tonight. We like to see if you can handle pressure.”

Handle pressure? That was laughable. She could handle most pressure while on the job. In fact, she was handling it quite well right now, but the guy seemed extremely adamant about pursuing her for a position as their next bartender. As she was lead out to the crowd of ravers, Rosa looks back as the door slid shut and she could still see the drugs piled behind the tarp. “What was your name again? I don’t believe we were introduced properly. My name’s Enzo Brodeur.” Even his name sounded too clean. Was his family French? Because he certainly didn’t have an accent. He sounded like a regular New Yorker.

_Maybe it’s an alias?_ Rosa thought before she shook the man’s hand. “Luciana Sanchez,” lied Rosa. Well, she wasn’t going to give them her real name. Enzo smiled from ear to ear, very pleased with how the name sounded rolling off of his own tongue. He escorted Rosa personally to the crowded bar and snapped his fingers when two of the other bartenders came forward. “Make sure Luci becomes acquainted with the area. If she passes this test, then will be our new employee.” Enzo gives them that weird, devilish smile and turns to Rosa before sway a welcoming hand in their direction. “After you.” Carefully, Rosa steps in behind the bar and the crowd of thirsty patrons.

Indeed. Pressure was putting it mildly. This was a full blown madhouse. There were at least ten people already trying flag her down and Rosa had to keep the charade up. She wanted to know what was going on behind closed doors - especially if Enzo had a plan with those drugs. “Hold on, I’m coming!” Rosa shouted over the senseless chatter and clatter of bottles from the back. Everything seemed to be going fine. When Enzo stepped up on stage to introduce himself and the DJ, cheers erupted that shook the entire building. Rosa has never really been to a place like this. It felt more like a reserved cult than a club. She supposed it was pretty much the same thing. It was going on midnight and Enzo began speaking into a mic about upcoming dates and events.

“Here,” said one of the sphinx women from earlier. A small little bag filled with the drugs she had discovered was handed to her. Color Rosa shocked. She blinks down at the ziplock as the two women were on their knees trying to organize empty liquor bottles and replacing them with new ones. “What am I supposed to do with this?” Rosa asked, furrowing her brows with heavy suspicion etched into her face. The other woman smiled and opened the little bag and dropped a few of the tablets into already premade drinks to give Rosa an example of what to do. What in the world? Rosa was not only surprised, she was bewildered and felt uncomfortable with this whole thing. She couldn’t back out now.

“Seriously?” Rosa asked as she is handed the ziplock bag packed with roofie tablets. The woman nods. “The ones that get dosed are collected for Enzo and then they’re taken to another warehouse for Him.” Him? Rosa wondered if the woman was referring to their killer and if she has seen the man before. This was like something out of a horror movie and Rosa became part of the cast when she stepped through the door. “Pro tip,” she said when she stood up and expertly balanced two drinks on a tray in her hands. “He enjoys them more with a little muscle.” What in the hell did Rosa get herself into? 

There is clear desperation on Rosa’s face even though she tries to hold her emotions in check. She was supposed to roofie these people and Enzo wanted them for his boss. This was a whole new level of fuckery if she ever did see one and she regretted throwing her mic away. Right now, would be a good time to have that backup from Terry, but now she wasn’t sure what she should do.


	12. Chaotic Mishaps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In an attempt to bring Enzo down, a wild skirmish becomes out of control in the nightclub. Someone gets seriously injured and as stubborn as they are, they're desperate to keep the injury a secret. 
> 
> (Sorry for the delay. I had a busy month! Hope you enjoy the update regardless. ♥)

This was ridiculous. What they’re making Rosa do was beyond immoral and illegal as fuck. She regrets taking her mic off now because then she could alert Terry and possibly call in her Task Force despite the risk it had. There was an ill feeling in Rosa’s stomach as she held the bag of drugs in her hand and her eyes shift up to the crowd of innocents who were simply trying to have a good time. It was a trap for them and what Rosa really desired right now was to destroy the drug the best way possible. If she had done that, it would be an obvious sign that she isn’t who she said she was and that would spell trouble for her.

If anything was to go right tonight, she had to play the part. With the ongoing complaints and requests for whacky mixed drinks, Rosa continued on doing her best to serve as many as possible to please Enzo who was watching from afar. Everyone around her had already been on at least something whether it was mixed with alcohol or not. It was to be expected when you came to these sorts of things - at least in Rosa’s experience as a cop. She sighs, and with her back turned to the patrons, she unzipped bag and plopped two pills into a couple mixed drinks. An intense wave of guilt washes through her and she feels regret for doing this.

 _There is a special place in hell for me,_ Rosa thought as she stirred the drink gently to allow the drugs to dissolve quicker. She watches as tiny bubbles float to the surface and they appeared to have camouflaged themselves to seem like it was simply club soda which was almost amusing to her if it wasn’t for the circumstances. Even though Rosa hated this, she had to admit it was an ingenious idea to hold events and dose people as they come. It seemed easy, that was, until Rosa showed up. They had no idea that she was about to cause them a little trouble and that was an understatement.

She sits the drinks down on a tray and one of the sphinx girls comes by to take it. Rosa watches, thankful that she isn’t the one at least doing all the serving except for behind the bar. However, she was stuck here feeling useless as these women go around doping up their customers unless she opted to aid the other waitresses despite not having a sphinx outfit on. It was apparently a theme for them as Rosa counted at least twenty sphinxes dotting the room with trays. After a few moments of collective thought, Rosa decides to get rid of the ziplock bag and shoves it up under one of the trash cans underneath bar. 

Maybe they’ll let her go to the back room and retrieve more so she can at least get her mic. “Looks like we’re all out of you know what,” Rosa says and one of the girls chuckles, only giving Rosa a little smile as she pulls another bag from a nearby drawer and hands it over. “Keep it up and you might have this job by the end of the night.” With a soft groan of frustration, Rosa felt defeated. She was running out of ideas fast, because all she needed to do was give the signal to Terry and he’d come busting through here like the Kool-Aid man with her Task Force ready at hand. She doesn’t know how these people party constantly. 

Rosa did back in her youth, but those days were far over. It’s exhausting being around these types of people. Taking a crate of empty liquor bottles in her arms, she carries them to another storage room in the back of the club. There was an entrance nearby and she wonders if it’s accessible. If she could make it there, she would be able to reach Terry from the backside of the building, but as soon as she drops the crates and heads in that direction Enzo popped up beside her like Michael Myers straight out of a goddamn B rated horror movie. You couldn’t get away from the bastard quick enough.

“Luci,” he tuts softly as he wraps an arm around her and pulls Rosa toward him. _For fuck sake,_ she thought as she could clearly feel unwanted hands touching her in all sorts of inappropriate ways. If she wanted to, she could turn him upside down, but that would cause a lot of suspicion out here in the open, but Rosa had another idea. Maybe she could play along, get him alone and then corner him and start initial interrogation. She did have her pistol tucked away on her person, but thankfully he has yet to find it. He has a nasty grin on his face that forced a wave of fear through Rosa unlike anything she’s felt in awhile.

Eventually, however, the fear is replaced with courage when she musters up what acting skills she possesses. Rosa was a good actress and can play the part of a victim or someone that is at least pretty vulnerable in situations like these and she was going to play this fool to her own advantage. “Oh, Mr. Brodeur.” She rolls her r’s with her tongue as she speaks, trying to sound exotic or intriguing. Regardless, he was already interested in Rosa from the get-go. He is guiding her to a secluded office in the back down a narrow, vacant hallway. You can still hear the thundering sounds of the music from outside on the main floor. 

“You are definitely impressive, Miss Sanchez. You might have a spot on our team by the end of the night. There is one thing, though. You must prove your loyalty to me.”

That didn’t sound all too comforting as Rosa watched the man lead her in through a threshold and close the office door behind them, locking it tightly. After Enzo removed his jacket, he uncuffed his sleeves and loosened up his tie. “This is a strange job interview,” said Rosa as she takes a couple steps back toward the desk behind her. Enzo laughs, taking Rosa by her wrist and pulling her extraordinarily close. He was inside her personal bubble and the way he breathed down her neck made her stomach churn with disgust. She wanted more than anything to pull her gun out, but that would frighten him and he may react. He needs to be just as vulnerable as she was acting.

“It can be, but this interview is what you want it to be,” Enzo said. Rosa closed her eyes, trying to picture herself anywhere else. She thought about Amy mostly. If Amy found out about what she had been doing with this suicidal undercover mission, she wouldn’t forgive Rosa for making her worry. Eventually, Enzo had stripped down to his jeans, and he really thought Rosa was going to go through with this - allowing him to fuck her sensless. Oh, hell the fuck no. When he was distracted from taking off his belt, Rosa hops off the desk and pulls the small pistol that she had been keeping between her breasts on the inside of her bodysuit. She clears her throat to get his attention and when he looks up, he sees nothing but the barrel of a pistol aiming directly between his eyes.

The tables have been turned and she has the man who may connect her to the Brooklyn Butcher. “Now, let’s take it easy.” He held his hands up cautiously, backing away. Rosa wasn’t about to go easy on him. She only stares, her brows furrowing with anger. Now that she was the one in control again, she had so many questions to ask him. “Luci, can we just sit down and talk.” Ugh, that name annoyed her now, especially when it came out of his mouth. He was still trying to put on his charm and Rosa wasn’t going to fall for it. As Enzo steps back, Rosa steps forward, shoving the barrel of her pistol between his legs now.

“Shut the fuck up, Enzo. I’m in control now.” Rosa said, pulling the hammer back on the pistol as if she was ready to pull the trigger at any given moment if he had pissed her off one more time or didn’t give her the information she wanted. “I’ve waited a long time to find you. Do you remember Rachel Dean?” Enzo did looked confused for a moment. Only for a moment, though, because he then realized the politician’s name from a news story a few days ago that she had gone to the police about what he had done to her. “Miss Dean and I had relations and they consensual. She came to me first for help because she wanted to run for governor and I would have gotten far.”

Rosa didn’t believe a single word. He was the scourge of the earth and easily one of the most rotten people she has ever dealt with. “Luci, you have to underst-,” he was cut off instantly when he felt the barrel of the pistol come a little too close for comfort. “One false move and I won’t hesitate to pull the trigger and castrate your ass.” Enzo kept quiet as she Rosa continued to speak, drilling him for information for anything regarding the Brooklyn Butcher. 

“Dean drew that symbol on your neck and I knew exactly where it was from. It was on a flyer at the site of the Brooklyn Butcher’s recent victim. Do you have anything to do with that or should I go ahead and pull the trigger now? Because you already seem really due to your negligence and shitty business skills. The drugs in the back storage room. Really? You might as well fess up.”

The man didn’t know what to say. He was indeed guilty for the most part, but he tried to persuade the woman that he didn’t know anything about the Brooklyn Butcher and while he was speaking, he kept watch on Rosa’s face, gauging her eyes and expressions. “You know something. Once my partner gets here, you’ll be arrested and processed anyway.” Rosa doesn’t know if he was the guy on the footage or not, but she decided to play with that and maybe she would get a confession out of him regardless. Rosa liked playing mind games with her enemies. With the dim lighting in the room, Rosa could clearly see a thick layer of sweat starting to form around Enzo’s face and neck. 

“You’re a cop?!” It dawned on Enzo on who Rosa was and quickly, he smacked Rosa’s arm, but her instincts had placed her in a dangerous situation when her finger had pulled the trigger, ricocheting a bullet off of a metal cabinet behind them. The loud noise shattered Rosa’s hearing for only a brief moment, but in that time, Enzo was able to grab a small pen knife from the desk drawer and uncapped it quickly. “Maybe it was me on the video,” he said as he was able to get away from the conflict Rosa had started and hid on the other side of the desk, “but I wasn’t lying about Rachel Dean. She pissed me off when she rejected my advances and I was going to take care of her later that night, but she was one of the more intelligent broads.”

Rosa took the liberty of getting to safety as well. Hunkering down in front of the desk next to the cabinet drawers, she pulled the hammer on the pistol again, loading another bullet into the chamber. “Afraid of smart women aren’t you?” Rosa laughed softly. “Just like a man.” Boy, he’d be terrified of Amy if she was here (and thank god she’s not). Knowing the woman, however, she would have fought back like Rachel did, but had done more damage to the man’s pride if anything. What she had said apparently struck the man’s nerve. His aggression and anger had gotten the better of him and Rosa heard him growl under his breath before taking off on the balls of his feet, lunging at her again from around the corner, but this time with the pen knife ready at hand.

“You bitch,” Enzo snarled but Rosa didn’t realize he came from behind and he knocked her to the floor. The impact Enzo made against Rosa had surprised her and this caused the dark haired detective to drop her weapon and it slid across the tile flooring several feet away. At the moment, she was completely defenseless. They had both paused for a second, only to make eye contact and Rose tried to dive for her weapon during a slight adrenaline rush. Enzo, who was a bit more broader than she was, had enough advantage on her to wrap both of his arms around her legs and restricted her movement. “Fuck off!” Rosa yelled as she raised up, taking Enzo’s head and slammed it against desk.

He let go instantly, but before Rosa could reach her weapon in time, Enzo recovered and was on her again in a second. Enzo wasn’t going to let a detective escape, especially one that was so wiley. Who knew what kind of damage she would cause him outside of all of this. Enzo, who still had the pen knife in hand, took his chance this time and reacted before Rosa could do anything to stop him. With seconds to spare, Enzo stuck the knife deep into Rosa’s side. It shredded the bodysuit she had been wearing, puncturing a hole where blood began to trickle through moments later. Fear replaced anger in Rosa’s eyes when she felt the pain of muscle tissue being ripped apart as he shoved it deeper again. 

It almost felt as if she was going to pass out. This had been the first time in her career something like this had happened, but she wasn’t going to let that deter her. The pain was intense, but she was stronger. Enzo didn't know who he was dealing with. Rosa’s heart was rapidly beating against her ribcage and she pulled the pen knife from her side. The wound, fortunately didn’t hit any important arteries, but if she had moved in anyway at all during that time, he would have stabbed her straight in the right kidney which would require immediate hospitalization and that is something Rosa doesn’t want right now, no matter how much pain she is already currently in. 

Enzo stands and retrieves Rosa’s gun with ease as she lays there holding her side. “I should just get rid of you entirely. We’re all animals, you know? It’s what we do to survive.” Casually, he wastes time checking the weapon for extra shells, and then pulls back on the hammer when he realized there were two left. Rosa felt like a deer in headlights. Fear had frozen her stiff and she couldn’t move despite the pain. All she could think about right now in these moments was Amy and how she would hate herself after death that she wouldn’t be around to help her with the baby. She couldn’t die now. Amy needed her.

That trademark devilish smile appears on his face, but the second he points the pistol down at Rosa, there was a loud ramming sound at the door. “Enzo Brodeur,” a loud thundering voice was heard from the other side of the doorway, “you’re under arrest. Come out with your hands up. Lay your weapons down. I have the entire building surrounded.” That voice made Rosa’s entire body collapse with relief when Enzo jumped in surprise. Finally, Terry had made it with her Task Force and about a dozen people for backup. 

The sound of an entry ram hit the door again and shook the entire room. Dust particles floated from the ceiling and landed on Rosa’s face, but before Enzo could try to make his quick departure, he pulled the trigger instantly catching Rosa off guard. “This is to teach you a lesson to not come meddling in my business.” Rosa lets out a harrowing scream when she felt even more pain added to the excruciating feeling she was already experiencing. She couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t hardly think - at least not anything but the pain she was in. Rosa took shallow breaths, trying to bring oxygen to her brain so she wouldn’t pass out. That was the last thing she wanted. She was running on fumes of adrenaline now and it was a fight or flight feeling.

Fear is was she felt the most. There was no way she could fight back in this situation. The bullet was lodged deep inside her still, and Rosa wonders if she could still recover without going to the hospital. The only reason she didn’t want that was because not only Amy would know - Holt would eventually know. Enzo dropped the gun to the ground and stepped back into the shadows. There apparently had been hideaway entrance that Rosa couldn’t see and it annoys her she didn’t see it until now. She raises herself up the best she could on the palms of her hands, trembling and shaking as the pain had been released through her body. Right when Enzo disappeared, the entry ram busted through and her Task Force had arrived with Terry in toe covered in body armor.

“Rosa!” Terry was shocked to see his friend lying on the ground with a bullet wound in her leg. Quickly, when he tries to contact an ambulance to the nearest hospital, Rosa insists that he doesn’t and that he should go after Enzo instead. She knew in her heart, that he was more important than her physical health. “You’re insane, Diaz! Forget about Enzo. You require immediate medical attention.” Terry groans to himself at how stubborn the woman can be, but she is helped up by two of her people, including Terry. “No… No hospital,” Rosa breathed out as she felt her body go entirely limp. “And I can’t let Amy know about this either.” Terry shook his head as he was running out of options. 

For a moment, he watches as the Task Force handle everything. They had seized the drugs that were being used to roofie patrons and several of the waitresses and bouncers that were in on it had been arrested, but Enzo was nowhere in sight. Even after two uniformed officers had took off on foot after him, he still managed to evade them effortlessly. “Okay,” Terry said as he helped aid another officer to bring Rosa to one of the armored vehicles parked out back. “Well, if we can’t go to the hospital, the precinct or your own damn apartment, looks like you’re going to my house until you recover.” Terry’s main concern, other than his kids at home, is that Rosa needed a doctor of some kind to extract the bullet in Rosa’s leg that was possibly shattered.

Rosa breathed in the fresh air as the doors opened up to safety. The armored vehicles outside gave her some sort of comfort, but she knew that Terry was risking himself for her. He would have to keep what she had done quiet and take it up with Holt in a report all on his own that he was the one that dealt with Enzo himself. Rosa leans against the bumper of one of the vehicles and sighs, trying to relax her shaking body. “Lieut,” said Rosa with a small, painful smile. Terry looks over at her as the Task Force hauled out what weapons and drugs were seized and began to sort through them before loading them into the vehicles. “Thanks. I appreciate you keeping this on the downlow.” 

There was a look on Terry’s face that Rosa didn’t quite understand. She knew he was disappointed in her. He knew she was reckless, stubborn, and a complete fool to not get help. There had been a medic on standby for support with them (but wasn’t suited for bullet extraction), and only they could do so much to clean the wound as her bodysuit was cut free from her injury. The feeling of cold instruments brushing against her hot flesh made her jump as the medic tried to cut away the material that was constricting the wound. If anything right now, the wound needed to breathe like Rosa did. 

She is handed her cell phone by one of the officers and she has received about ten missed text messages and a couple of calls from Amy wondering where she had been. “Shit,” she mumbled as she unlocked her phone and made the call to her. She looks at Terry and holds up a finger and waits only for one short ring before Amy picked it up. It almost felt like Amy had been waiting for her to call back all evening which made Rosa feel slightly guilty for it all. “Hey, Ames.” She can hear Amy’s voice that was full of concern change abruptly to relief when she explained where she was. A little white lie is all it took to keep Amy from worrying too much. “Yeah, it’s just an overnight shift. I’ll be home in the morning. I’ll text you later if you’re still awake.” 

They had talked for a grand total of ten minutes and Rosa could have talked to her for a lifetime on the phone. Hearing Amy’s voice again made her realize why she loved being a cop despite the risk and danger involved in the field. It was because she wanted to protect the ones she loved, that was the reason why Rosa goes above and beyond to make sure her city is safe from people like Enzo and the Butcher that he is obviously connected to. “When you interview the waitresses that were arrested, ask them about the Butcher.” Terry looks at her and sighs, shaking his head.

“You’re too deep into this case, even when you’re not even on it, Rosa. You have to stop for now. We’ll get Enzo in due time. The Task Force is at work now and I’m sure they’ll find something to connect him to where he is going.” Rosa wasn’t sure if Terry was right or not, but Enzo seemed like the sloppy bad guy that would eventually lead her straight to the center prize. He would slip up, miss his mark, and leave hard evidence behind that would help her non-existing case further. Right now though, she would need to focus on recovery and would need to get to Terry’s house quickly if she wanted to start the of healing. 

She speaks to Terry a few more minutes about the case and what he needed to do to persuade Captain Holt to talk to the women and few men who worked for Enzo. The same one that handed her the ziplock bag filled with drugs was staring at her, looking as if she had been betrayed. Rosa simply looks away knowing the woman’s fate was all too real. She would be interrogated along with the others and if found guilty, she would be processed and held until she is sent to a federal prison. 

If Terry isn’t the one disappointed in her for this chaos, Rosa certainly is mostly in herself. She let a prime suspect get away and she was neglectful of her own position which caused her a serious injury in return. She winces in pain, but tries hard not to grab onto the wound. Terry did persuade their medic to come along with them to his house to keep watch on Rosa while she recovered and she appreciated what aid she was given. She nods to the woman that was donned in body armor and carrying a large first aid kit. 

“Well, let me call Sharon and let her know what’s going on,” Terry said as he placed a comforting hand on his friend’s shoulder. “You’re going to be alright, Rosa. We’ll take care of you. You’re in good hands.”


	13. Keeping Secrets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an awkward night at the Jefford's household, Rosa stubbornly agrees to go to the hospital the next day to get her wounds checked out. When Rosa is finally able to go home, she is terrified about Amy finding out. However, it aapears that Amy doesn't suspect that anything had happened.

To put it simply, if Rosa was in anymore pain than she was in already, she’d probably black out from it. The medic that had tailed with them on the way to Terry’s house had given her a couple doses of pain medication, but it wasn’t the remedy that Rosa was hoping for. She groans, holding her side that still had a bullet lodged deep within her. “You need to get to a hospital, Diaz.” Terry said as he sat in the back of the armored vehicle. He couldn’t believe that Rosa still insists that she kept this private. “You have a bullet inside you for god’s sake.” 

He sighed, feeling frustrated that Rosa wasn’t listening. The medic, however, told Rosa that the bullet removal depends on several factors but they need x-rays to see where it actually went through. “If there’s no risk,” Rosa inhaled sharply at the pain from torn muscle tissue. “Then leave it.” The medic nods, knowing the consequences of something like this if it goes unchecked. All they could do now is observe Rosa to make sure the body isn’t reacting in a horrible way. 

When the medic was finished cleaning the wound, the vehicle rolled to a gentle stop outside the Jeffords house. Sharon was already standing at the front door, making sure that their little ones weren’t going to be up and running about the house, witnessing what was happening. “Hey, hon,” Terry said in a high pitched _’everything is fine’_ tone, but the look on Sharon’s face said otherwise when she saw one of his coworkers behind hauled out of the vehicle. Sharon was being gracious by letting Rosa stay until she is able to move again, but Rosa knew this wasn’t going to be something overnight.

Eventually, she would have to explain to Amy what has happened and man, she will never let Rosa live it down. “Easy,” said Sharon as she took charge of the situation almost immediately. She was a mother, after all. One of the most caring and gentle souls on the planet - until you piss her off. She watches Rosa’s Task Force help carry the moaning woman inside and is placed gently on the couch which had already been prepared for. Rosa was at least able to change out of that tight ass bodysuit and into her more comfortable attire, but it didn’t lessen the pain she was in.

“Here,” said Sharon as she handed Rosa a giant glass of water. Rosa was dehydrated, and that was the first thing that needed to be taken care of. She had downed the entire thing quite quickly before exhaling with relief. The cool water rushing through her was enough to calm the hot, stinging pain of her flesh that became worse as time went on. At least she was able to collect herself for a minute before the pain surged back through her later. “Thank you, Sharon. I appreciate it.” Rosa nods her head as she leans back into the couch, trying to rest her body from the abuse it had been dealt. 

Terry knows what he has to do when he gets back to work in the morning. He will have to make a report on this, especially with the drugs that the Task Force has received, but no where in the report would he mention Rosa’s name. Captain Holt can never find out about this so he must make the man believe that he did this on his own accord and it has paid off in the long run. He felt a pang of guilt even considering taking credit for Rosa’s findings about the Brooklyn Butcher so far, but she had already said to keep this quiet. Sharon beckons Terry into the kitchen off to the side and they discuss what they’re going to do next.

As the Task Force gathers their things and leaves for the precinct, Rosa feels a sense of peace despite everything. Even though Enzo had managed to slip away from them, they were able to take down his operation and save a lot of people from their demise. She really had no idea what would have become of them, but she knew that if she had dosed herself that night, she might have been one step closer to her arch enemy as of late. In the long run, Rosa was able to do some kind of good tonight, even if she was heavily injured in the process.

When Terry comes back through the living room, he whispering in a low tone to Sharon to keep Kagney and Lacey from waking up.. At least all of the chaos has settled down and Rosa simply just has to keep taking antibiotics and pain relief medication until they figure out what to do next. “She needs a hospital, Terrance. I’m not going to allow one of your coworkers to die on my couch.” Terry waves his hands at Sharon’s words as they debate. It was all to complicated as Rosa overhears most of it. Rosa thought that Sharon didn’t want an injured person here on the off chance of their kids witnessing it.

“I’m fine, Mrs. Jeffords,” Rosa piped up and smiles over her shoulder. “It’s just a flesh wound. The pain is a real bitch, but I think I can manage without a hospital until the morning.”

Sharon looks at Terry and mouths the word _‘morning’_ as if she was serious about staying until the sun came up. His wife didn’t seem all too pleased with the idea, and Rosa understood why. Terry was able to at least convince Sharon that Rosa wouldn’t cause any trouble. That she was a strong woman, capable of handling things on her own. It was pretty much why they were there in the first place anyway. “If the girls wake up and starts asking questions… you’re going to answer them.” Terry winced at the thought of having to explain this to his daughters, but if it had to be done, then so be it. 

“Sorry, Lieut.” said Rosa as Sharon walked away back into their bedroom. “I didn’t realize this was going to cause an issue.”

“Nah,” said Terry and sighed helplessly as he sat down next to Rosa. The medic was sitting in a chair across from them just in case something dire had gone wrong and they would be able to assist. “Sharon is just worried because this was my biggest fear a few years ago, remember? It took a while to get me back on the force after I had that incident.” Rosa nods, remembering it all too well. “My question is, how are you going to let Amy know about all of this? You’ll be limpy gimpy for a while. She’ll notice. That’s going to be a fun conversation.”

A small groan erupted from Rosa’s throat as she lays her head back and puts her eyes to the ceiling. Having to tell Amy what has happened to her tonight was going to be the biggest challenge of them all. If she were here right now, she would have gone to a hospital if Amy insisted, but since she wasn’t, Rosa was doing this on her own. “In the morning I'll get x-rays, but that’s it. If the bullet poses no risk, then no surgery is needed.” The medic nodded to Rosa’s promise to Terry from across them. 

“You know,” the medic spoke, “sometimes a surgery makes it even more difficult and risky if the bullet is lodged somewhere like next to a blood vessel.” Rosa motions a hand to what the medic said and just smiles, seeing how blown out of proportion. “But if that blood vessel pops because of the bullet, it could spell immediate disaster for you, detective. It’s really better to be safe than sorry and let a doctor determine if you need surgery or not get it removed.” Rosa looks down at her leg. She had changed into a thin pair of leggings before so it would be easier to work around the wound, but it seemed to be doing fine aside from the never ending trickle of blood that continued to pour. 

They had to apply pressure on it every now and then in an attempt to stop it. Even the slice wound in Rosa's side was gushing and had to be dressed every few hours. “I’ll have to tell Amy in the morning. Come clean with everything probably,” Rosa said as she is handed a fresh, damp towel so she can use it on her wound. “I hate that she’s always so worried.” Terry smiles, chuckling softly. 

“It’s Amy. She’ll always worry. It shows she cares, especially about you. You seem to be like her personal guardian angel.” Terry said as he helped wrap Rosa’s leg in a fresh bandages from the first aid kit. Rosa rolls her eyes, not really caring much about that sort of thing, but she supposed she was kind of like guardian angel to Amy. She simply just wanted to make sure she was okay. Terry was warned about Amy’s pregnancy, and he is still just as flabbergasted as Rosa was when he found out. He couldn’t believe it, but he understood why Amy wanted to go back to Jake despite everything that happened between them.

Placing a hand on Rosa’s shoulder, Terry gives it a soft pat as he stands on his feet. Rosa had blankets and a pillow, but she would have to sleep upright like she was sitting for it was going to be difficult to move in the morning. “Thanks, Lieut. This means a lot that you’re keeping everything quiet. I should probably text Amy or give her a call if she’s not asleep already.” Rosa looks at the time on her phone and realizes that it was well past midnight. She was going to be exhausted, sore and in pain before she even reaches the hospital.

“Anytime. Just don’t get shot and stabbed ever again,” said Terry as he walks in the direction of his bedroom upstairs. The medic stayed around while Rosa began to send Amy a quick text. To Rosa’s surprise, Amy was still awake. It appeared that she couldn’t sleep and thought that something might have been wrong. _My god. Those pregnancy hormones make Amy have superhuman intuition,_ thought Rosa as she responds. Rosa did tell Amy she had to talk to her in the morning about what happened tonight. That is, if she hadn't decided to change her mind yet about it.

The detective still didn’t want Amy to know and she thought that she could hold off on it as long as possible until she is ready to cave and tell the truth. Rosa hoped that will be a long time if it’s ever brought up. Rosa wondered how long she could pull this off. She may have to go to physical therapy if she doesn’t get the surgery regardless because she knows if she didn’t start moving her leg soon, she would become incapacitated with time. Once Rosa told Amy goodnight, she puts her phone on charge next to her with a cord that was supplied to her by Terry and rests her eyes until she eventually fell asleep.

Throughout the night, Rosa had only woke a grand total of three separate times due to the pain. It was quickly settled by some numbing cream that she had discovered in the first aid kit nearby. Thankfully, it did the trick for the time being. Once 7am rolled around, she could hear the twins starting to rummage around upstairs and the sounds of a younger, crying child. Rosa wonders if she could handle helping Amy take care of a kid because who knows if Jake will ever pull his own weight in that already broken relationship. 

Rosa sits up a little bit, making a slight face as she tries to adjust herself. She felt stiff from how her leg laid all night, but at least what the medic has done so far, seemed to have help ward off most of the pain. The medic is busy changing the blood-soaked bandages on Rosa’s leg when the twins came barreling down the stairs and Sharon was carrying their youngest in her arms. The twins stop and exchange curious, yet concerned looks with each other when they see Rosa sitting on the couch. Sharon, however, distracts them with a few games and breakfast. 

When Terry comes down, he is dressed in casual wear - something Rosa hardly ever sees him in. It was really different, but Rosa smirked at the sight. “How’re you feeling this morning?” Terry asked as he leaned over the couch and clasped his hands together. Rosa nods unsurely before glancing over at him. “Better. I think I can make it to the hospital for some x-rays. If Amy calls, can you just say I’m still at the office?” For once, Rosa is glad Amy didn’t work anymore or else she would already be found out. “Just let her know so she doesn’t get suspicious. I know how she is and she will start to put two and two together.”

The large man sighed, nodding his head in agreement. Terry knew this was still a bad idea but he decided to give Rosa the benefit of the doubt, knowing that she would do right in the future with this whole predicament. “If you say so, Diaz, but I’m not going to get in the crossfire when this whole thing explodes and Amy finds out. You’re dealing with that on your own. Now, we’re going to have a nice breakfast and then I’m taking you to the hospital to get some x-rays.” Terry said. Maybe he was just cranky, but Rosa could sense a little sass in his tone. 

She never replied, just nodded her head while he went to retrieve whatever he decided to make the family for breakfast. Rosa had no idea that Terry cooked, or actually preferred cooking instead of Sharon. It was interesting, and Rosa just gained a newfound respect for the man than she already had.

When they arrived at the nearest hospital, the waiting room was more than busy. Everything from broken noses to tummy aches and Rosa swore she saw a guy dressed like Santa Claus. Unless, of course, there is already an infection in her wound and it was starting to spread to her brain. It wasn’t even Christmas yet. She sits with Terry and the medic from last night that tagged along, but they ended up waiting at least two hours before a nurse even attempted to see them. “This is stupid,” Rosa mumbled with her arms threaded across her chest. Terry could see how sour she looked, but he understood because he felt that expression himself.

It was irritating as fuck.

Finally, when a nurse came to them and was able to get Rosa settled into a room for x-rays, Terry helps Rosa up on one of the gurney beds. “Okay, Miss Diaz,” said one of the male nurses that came through with a clipboard of Rosa’s information. He examines the wound himself and gives his compliments to the medic that helped keep the wound clean. “Let’s get you all set up here.” He moves the giant x-ray machine and fits it to where it could scan her left leg. It was an awkward position and she winced, practically growled through her teeth at the man when he tried to adjust her. 

“We’re going to need you to cooperate, Miss.” The nurse said desperately when he backed off for only a second and attempted to move her again. “This is an important step so we can see what actually went wrong.” Terry places a hand on Rosa’s shoulder to calm her and all she did was huff loudly in disdain. She hated hospitals, but supposed this was rather important to get done. She decided to not fight them and when the machine began to scan she felt her entire body tense. Of course, x-ray machines never hurt, but Rosa was terrified of the results.

Deep down, she really didn’t want to have surgery. She hoped the bullet was in a place where she would just have to get used to and deal with whatever pain it gave her down the road. When the nurse left get them developed, Rosa takes in several breaths to relax herself. It wasn’t helping, but she was trying at least. “It’s going to be fine, Diaz.” Terry reassured Rosa with a firm nod. He knew that even though Rosa was a strong woman, she was equally stubborn and wouldn’t let anyone try to take care of her. 

He kept getting text messages from Amy, though, periodically throughout the morning which made him feel indifferent to this whole _”keeping it quiet”_ situation. If Rosa didn’t need surgery, she would have to fake it until the bullet wound healed on its own. It would scar and be a constant reminder to Rosa about what happened. She may even have to walk with a cane because Terry knew that she would walk with a little limp. Rosa might even disregard the help of a cane just to keep everything underwraps. 

After about twenty minutes, the nurse came back with black transparent photographs of Rosa’s left leg and hangs them up in front of a bright LED light. “Well, right there’s your bullet and it looks like you will be fine without surgery. There’s no broken bones, or damage to vital organs or blood vessels. We will have to drain the wound properly and get it stitched up so it doesn’t continue to bleed, but you’ll be fine. However, I do suggest you take off work for a week.” Rosa blinks and shakes her head at the man. She couldn’t take off work for a solid week! 

She was already in trouble for being on a case that she shouldn’t be part of. Rosa didn’t even know if she had enough sick leave from where she allowed Amy to use some of her days to stay with her. She might have a couple, so maybe she’ll just take a personal day instead so it doesn’t become suspicious with her coworkers. It seems she had no choice in the matter and only nods her head. 

“Fine. I’ll take a personal day, but I don’t think I can take sick leave,” said Rosa. “I’m not sure if I have any left, but that’s okay. I’ll be careful.”

The last words Terry heard made him roll his eyes. He was surprised that Rosa even knew the meaning of the word _’careful’_. The nurse nods in approval and begins to get his stitching kit ready and gloves on to prepare himself. He sits down in a rolly chair and slides himself to the sink to thread the needle under some bright lights. “Alright, now all we gotta do is clean the wound one more time before we stitch it up. You’ll be good to go.” He smiles over his shoulder and Rosa just lays there trying to relax. 

Rosa must have figured they have been at the hospital for a few hours now. After this, she needs to go home to let Amy know she has simply been doing a lot of overtime. It was the only excuse she could come up with, but she would have to get used to walking right away without anything, and with her stubbornness and willing to succeed, Rosa knows she can do it. Rosa winces slightly as the nurse began to stitch up the three inch wound. A small groan of pain escapes the detective when she feels the needle slide through two layers of skin and pulls the two flaps together. 

When it was tied, she had to wait through ten more stitches and each one was equally painful as the other - including her slice wound by Enzo's knife in her side. The nurse wipes the blood from around the new stitches and begins to bandage her leg up as neatly and properly as he could. Half the time the nurse was afraid that Rosa was going to kick him, but he was thankful that she was in too much pain to even try it. Rosa was kind of scary when things didn’t really go her way. “There we go. You’re all set. You’re quite fortunate, detective. My assistant will see you out and we will bill your insurance.” Rosa nods as she is helped up and Terry fixes her leggings for her since they had been rolled up to her knee.

“Thanks, doc. Rosa said as she tries to stand without Terry’s help. It was already going to be a long, difficult road. When she tried to put some kind of weight on it, she almost buckled right there, but held onto the gurney. “Guess I’m going to need to practice.” The only thing she had to worry about now is keeping up her strength so Amy wouldn’t start asking questions. Even simply going walking around her apartment will raise alarm in Amy. She was an intelligent woman and she wasn’t a fool. Eventually, she would have to tell Amy about what happened, but right now. She just didn’t want to her to worry.

It was around noon when Rosa was able to get back home. She helped herself to the walk down the hallway to her apartment and she was stricken with nerves because behind the door would be the true test. She jiggles her keys as she leans all of her weight on her right leg and makes a painful expression. Arlo was already barking up a storm when he heard the keys himself and when she opens the door, she finds Arlo sitting by Amy who was watching some documentary about NASA.

Rosa’s loyal canine bounces toward her on his feet and she could hear his claws hit the kitchen floor. She smiles and rubs his head affectionately before glancing up to see Amy smiling at her over her shoulder. “There you are.” Amy was definitely a sight for sore eyes and she Rosa couldn’t help that her heart was pounding against her chest. “You must have had a rough night in the office. You look like crap.” Amy says jokingly with a little laugh and the two women embrace for a few seconds, grateful Amy is in her life. Rosa had changed her mind about telling Amy everything. She would keep this a secret as long as she could. 

Having Amy worry about about her on top of being pregnant is the last thing she wanted, but after last night, Rosa had been thinking a lot about what would happen if the bullet had another area of her body - an important one and she didn’t make it. This incident wasn’t going to give Rosa cold feet about being on the force, though. This job was her absolute calling and she was going to protect the people she loved even if it did put her in harm's way. Just having Amy in her arms makes her feel ten times better and and she tightens her squeeze a little more. The other woman noticed and she pulled away to look at Rosa’s face. 

There was indeed exhaustion all over the woman and her eyes were tired. “You should go lay down. I’ll make you something to eat.” Rosa didn’t know if Amy’s cooking was less than appetizing most of the time, but Rosa was glad to be able to rest for a little bit. Just this one time, she would enjoy Amy’s cooking regardless, because she realizes that the woman’s food wasn’t the real danger that she always thought posed a threat.


	14. Broken Promises

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a menial day at work, Rosa obtains very important information from one the sphinx girls at the nightclub. All seems to be well and fine with Rosa's injuries, but arguments later ensue when Amy notices the wound in Rosa's side.

Rosa knew she had to take it easy for the next several days, but that was easier said than done. She hated being lazy and her stubbornness only grew around the precinct when someone tried to help her. Jake was back at work and that didn’t make things any better for her current mood as well, but they did keep their distance for much of the time and a lot of people began to take notice. “You need to go sit down for a while,” suggested Terry as he watches Rosa carry in a medium sized box of files over to her desk to sort out from the evidence locker. 

There wasn’t much for her to do since she was off the case and now suffering in pain from her injury, so organizing files from the late sixties and onward seemed the most appropriate thing. “I’ve got it, Lieut.” She said, dropping the box immediately before she could feel a muscle in her side cramping up from the stab wound. She wasn’t going to lie, it hurt like fuck, but at least they were starting to show signs of healing. There was a thin scab starting to appear in the entry point where the blade had punctured through and she still doesn’t know how she has gotten away with it at home.

Her leg was the same exact way, and damn did it ever itch. She hated the fact that as it was healing with the stitches, Rosa wanted pull out every single one. Of course, she knows she can’t, but it wasn’t any easier. However, Rosa still made it seem like nothing was wrong. She was getting by with light questioning about her condition and she quickly recovered with an excuse about exercise or it was some intense self-defense class. At least, that’s what she has been telling Amy at home. The woman has yet to see her stitches and she was going to make damn sure she never does. Rosa didn’t want to go into that explanation right now. Amy had enough to worry about.

“Jeffords,” called Captain Holt from his office and beckons him forward. Rosa looks up and her eyes shift to Terry. When Holt found out about the little incident from a few nights ago, Rosa couldn’t tell if the Captain was impressed or upset. He did congratulate Terry on a job well done, but in his own words it _’hadn’t been necessary’_. He probably wanted a follow up on the whole Enzo character, but only Rosa really knew what he looked like other than the Sphinx women that were across the room in the holding cells. 

Rosa stands on her feet after Terry leaves her desk and she heads over toward the holding cells where one of the women were leaning against the bars, observing the bullpen.”Well, if isn’t Luciana,” the sphinx woman said. She had been the one who gave Rosa the bag of drugs to dose the drinks. “If that’s even your real name. You should have told me you were a cop.” She said, sinking into wall behind her. 

“Yeah, well you didn’t tell me you were working for a thief and a killer.” Rosa growled. “Once you get placed into interrogation, you’re going to come clean about Enzo. Everything. You’re going to my superior about his entire operation at the Aztec nightclub and his relation with the Brooklyn Butcher.” There is a confused look on the other woman’s face and she shrugs her shoulders at the idea. In reality, she didn’t know anything about Enzo’s relationship with the man or if it was all true.  
“You’re barking up the wrong tree, detective. Enzo wasn’t much of a social butterfly except with people who lined his pockets,” she said and crossed her arms over her chest. She is looking at Rosa with this serious expression on her face, but then it subtly changed to worry. Rosa saw it and she didn’t know if it had to do with the interrogation or Enzo himself. He was a dangerous man and she knew if these women had sold out on his location and complete information about him and his operation, then they might be in danger if they’re released. 

Once they were done processing them, Rosa knew they would earn several months in jail, so hopefully by then all of this would have blown over. Maybe she can bribe them with protection in exchange for information leading to his whereabouts. She’ll have to talk to Terry and possibly Captain Holt to see if she would be allowed in the interrogation room. “If you work with me, I’ll guarantee your safety.” The woman just laughed and shook her head, raising her eyes to the ceiling as if Rosa was a complete fool.

“You don’t understand. Enzo wins every time.” She pauses for a moment and sighs, feeling the desperation coming off Rosa like a wave. “Enzo isn’t his real name. It’s a stage name. Check your database for Viktor Legrand.” Rosa takes out a pen and slip of paper and begins writing information down. “He had several felony charges a few years back exporting illegal goods across Brooklyn from France. However, being the big dog he is, he had people to pay him off and his charges were dropped and all he had to do was community service and several thousand dollars fine.”

“Viktor Legrand…” Rosa knows the name as it fell from her lips. “Legrand as in Legrand Whiskey Distillery?” 

The sphinx woman nods, confirming the location. “If anything, he could be there.” The other woman said with a slight shrug of her shoulders. “Be careful, detective. Don’t underestimate him. He’s ruthless.”

“So am I,” said Rosa as she folded up her pad of precious information and walks away from the holding cell. It seemed far too easy to get the information from the sphinx woman. Either she was completely lying about everything, or she was just as desperate for Rosa to catch Viktor as she was. She couldn’t let Holt or Terry know she had information regarding it, but it would do good for the other woman to tell them during interrogation. There was no point in trying to plead her case to Holt when she has the information on the tips of her fingers. 

-S-

Later that evening, Rosa came home tired. She was sore in all the wrong places from sitting and doing endless paperwork, but at least she didn’t have to do overtime. She didn’t even have to talk to Jake which she was grateful for. Rosa hated the fact that he only had suspension, so Rosa guessed beating up your wife wasn’t enough to be fired from. What a twisted system they all lived by. She can hear Amy in the bathroom taking her time with what she was doing and Rosa eases herself gently down into the sofa with a beer in her hand. 

The information that was given to her about Viktor had been circling through her mind all day. If she could, she would go right to that distillery this very second and face him off again, but she knew her current condition, there was no way she could. Rosa knows this would take several months to heal, but by that time more and more victims could be piling up from by their killer. It angered Rosa still that Viktor got away like the slimy eel he was, but she is learning that mistakes happen.

When the water from the shower shuts off, Rosa’s eyes shift over toward the door. Amy was thinking about moving out next month and trying to restart her life again with Jake. No matter how many times Rosa tries, she always loses it seems when it came to Amy. She was unattainable. Amy was a little over a month pregnant and it just worries Rosa that Jake is still not the person he is making himself out to be. That man is nothing but smoke and mirrors and an annoying itch that you couldn’t scratch. Rosa couldn’t help that her thought process was so hostile, but after what she has witnessed, Rosa wanted to make sure it wouldn’t happen again.

“Hey,” said a soft voice and Rosa smiles at the woman who stepped out in only a towel. Rosa swallows hard, clearing her throat as she juggled her beer in her arms. “I didn’t know you were home. How was work?” Amy smiles, taking a brush to her damp hair and Rosa just shrugs her shoulders at the question. 

“Pretty boring actually. I’m tired of doing paperwork and trivial cases.” Rosa replied as she took a swig of beer. She winces slightly at the sting that sometimes creeps up on her in her leg. It was like pins and needles at times, but she couldn’t afford to have Amy find out right now. 

“Trivial cases are still rewarding,” Amy said with a little chortle. “You’re a good cop, Rosa. Even something as small as getting a football from a rooftop can change the hearts of some people.”

This woman had a heart of gold and it makes Rosa ache (or that could be just the pain in her leg). She really wanted to try to convince Amy to stay with her and she has multiple times, but sadly Amy had already made up her decision so there was no point in trying. She couldn’t say no to Jake for some reason or another as if he had a tight grip on her. Rosa half wondered if that had something to do with all the mental abuse that Amy might have been inflicted with in the past before any of the physical stuff happened. “You’re right. I shouldn’t whine so much about losing that case,” she says and plays off comment.

“It’s probably for the best anyway. It’s dangerous. You should just let Terry and Captain Holt take care of it all.” Amy was a little disappointed too and Rosa could see it in her eyes. She was the one who found out about the nightclub in the first place and it led Rosa to a treasure cove of information - maybe even to the Brooklyn Butcher. “I wouldn’t be able to stand it if you got hurt.”

Guilt settled in quite quickly with those words that left Amy’s lips. Rosa sighed deeply and nods her head to Amy before she slid back into the bathroom to get dressed. “I know,” said Rosa and she raises her black shirt up to see the stab wound that had started to heal. She still had to keep putting patches over it, but it had finally stopped bleeding earlier this morning and she was relieved for that. The pain is still there, and there is a tenderness to her skin as it tried to repair the damaged muscle tissue. Lowering her shirt, Rosa closes her eyes and thanks the gods above that it didn’t go further south than that.

After a few moments, Amy steps out wearing her usual pajamas and wonders over, sliding into the couch next to Rosa. “Rosa,” said Amy pulls one of the crocheted blankets over top her and grabs the remote. “You’re very important to me and I can’t lose you.” Rosa doesn’t open her eyes, but she does feel cold hand slid into her warm one. That was when her attention focused on the woman beside her. “You’re like my guardian angel.” Rosa wasn’t sure if she believed in any of that, but she couldn’t help but smile and feel the heat rise in her cheeks when Amy said those words. She was precious and Rosa simply gives her a little tight squeeze. 

“You’re such a dork,” Rosa said and they both laugh at the remark. Playfully, Amy punches Rosa right in the shoulder with a shocked expression on her face. 

“Rude!” she said and chuckles, releasing Rosa’s hand to pull the blanket up around her. Because of her pregnancy, her feet were like ice - at least that’s what she blames it on. She has double socks, warm pjs and a crocheted blanket keeping her bundled up as she searches something on Netflix to watch, but she could still notice an icy feeling lingering in the room. Amy makes herself comfortable and Rosa tries to relax for a second before forcing herself up off the couch. It took a minute, but Rosa tried to do it quickly and normally so Amy wouldn’t notice how much pain she was in. 

“I’m getting something to drink. Want anything?”

Amy looks at Rosa and gives her a nod. “Can I have some tea please?”

“Sure,” Rosa said and heads over to the kitchen to make a pot. Amy smiled as she watches her, taking time to reflect on how fortunate she was to have a friend like Rosa. The detective knows exactly what Amy likes, so she doesn’t have to second guess anything. She takes her time though, and reaches up to one of the cabinets above the coffee pot to grab a mug. However, in doing so, Rosa’s shirt raises up slightly and Amy caught sight of the patch covering the healing wound. When her eyes shift to Rosa’s face, she could easily see the pain now written all over it. 

“Rosa?” Amy gets up from the couch with the blanket wrapped around her. She approaches her friend carefully, not really wanting Rosa to recoil against her hand. “What’s this?” Rosa stops what she was doing, and leans against the counter with a coffee mug in her hand. She silently curses herself for being foolish, but quickly shoves her shirt down and shakes her head. It was stupid to try to hide anything from the woman, but Rosa was hanging on by the skin of teeth to keep what happened secret. It wasn’t really working out for her right now.

“What’s what?” Rosa asked, and pushes Amy’s hands away from her side where the knife wound was. 

“ _This_ ,” said Amy more sternly and was able to raise Rosa’s shirt in time to see the patch up close. Rosa’s abs flex and tense when she feels Amy’s hands on her warm skin. It was reaction was anticipating, but the pain was real even if Rosa tried to not show it on her face. “Explain.” If Rosa didn’t, she knew that she would be scolded for days on end. She was caught red handed, but maybe she wouldn’t have to tell Amy about the wound in her leg just yet. “Did you get hurt on the job? Have you reported it?” 

“Amy, please… it’s nothing. Doesn’t even hurt,” Rosa said and waves off Amy’s worries as if that was going to do anything to deter the former sergeant from knowing the truth. She grabs Rosa’s wrist and pulled her back before Rosa even takes a step in the other direction. There was no getting around it. Rosa turns her eyes toward Amy, and she sighs, groaning at having to lie again to keep things the way they were. “Fine. I was chasing someone and we got into a little skirmish and I didn’t he had a knife in his hand.” Her words were failing on her lips as she spoke a half truth, but it was enough to keep Amy from getting extremely upset.

It did, however, force Amy to storm off back over to the couch in silence. Her reaction stunned Rosa a little bit but at least now she can ease up on her side. “Ames,” said Rosa as she carefully steps back over to the couch. “Hey,” she said and when she tugs on the blanket Amy is wrapped up in, it is jerked away from her in a rough manner. Rosa couldn’t tell what Amy is feeling. To be honest, Rosa thought it might be just Amy being hormonal. Rosa disguises the limp in her leg as she places a hand to her side and walks around the couch to sit down next to her. A sigh escapes Rosa, unsure how to even go about this conversation.

She tries to focus Amy’s attention on her, but the blanket is obscuring the girl’s vision on purpose. Amy doesn’t want to look at Rosa. “So reckless,” said Amy with a little huff. Rosa pushes off the back of the couch with the palm of her hand, but doesn’t stand. Instead, she tries to pull the blanket down from Amy’s red face. 

“I’m sorry, Ames.”

“Don’t ‘ _sorry_ ’ me. You promised me you’d be careful.” 

“I’m still here aren’t I?” Rosa asked jokingly with a smirk. That smirk quickly faded when she saw the tears swelling up in Amy’s eyes and realized how real this was. Any second Rosa was on this case that she wasn’t supposed to be on, is a life and death situation. She met death halfway when Viktor stabbed her and then shot her in the leg (Rosa will refused to let Amy know about that one) and this was only the tip of the iceberg if things decide to blow up in her face. “We both promised a lot of things,” said Rosa, referring to Amy’s promise about not going back to Jake. But here she is, getting ready to go back to him after forcing Rosa to make sure she didn’t.

“Don’t turn this conversation on me.” Amy snapped. “I’m still angry at you.”

“I’m not. It’s hard to keep a promise about something your instincts feel so strongly about. Even if it puts you in a life threatening situation. You can still be angry with me. Just know I’m still doing this case regardless.” Rosa explained as she took the mug and set it down on the counter. She wasn’t going to fight Amy over this. It was a stupid argument to begin with. She was fine despite being in pain. In a few months time she would be good to go again. Rosa defused the situation as much as possible before this turned into an inferno she couldn’t put out.

Rosa had to walk away from it, but she did make stand there at the counter and made Amy’s tea even if she can feel the woman’s eyes burning into the back of her head. As unnerving as it was, Rosa understood Amy was just worried. “If you continued to do this, Rosa, I’m going to tell Captain Holt.” Rosa tensed before she placed in the tea bags, but she never falters in what she was doing. She keeps her infamous stoic expression as she filled the pot with at least two cups of water and turned it on to brew. After a second, she turns over her shoulder and looks at Amy finally.

“Winning a fight with you, is like fighting with your own reflection, Ames. I love you, I do, but I’m done tonight. You can, but I’m not going to bed angry.” It was impossible to win an argument because Amy would always bring back around the same points to her case. Rosa wasn’t going to lie that Amy was right and that she shouldn’t take this case anymore, but Rosa highly doubted that she was going to go to Holt over this. They both worked so hard to get where they were and Amy had done a lot of research on her own part to help Rosa’s case that had become extremely personal to her and even more so now. 

It was around midnight and Rosa was comfortable laying on her side of the bed. Amy’s side was empty and she should have guessed that she was reflecting on the conversation they had. Rosa groans in pain, sitting up to check her leg. It was painfully sore, but the stitches seemed to be holding up in place. _Amy would kill me in my sleep if she knew about my leg._ Rosa thought as stood and limped, holding her side in place as she checks out in the hallway. Arlo was laying by the couch, and she wonders if he was still so adamant about being next to the pregnant woman. Dogs seemed to know about these things.

Amy didn’t come to bed, and Rosa figured it was probably because she was still upset. She couldn’t blame her. As Rosa walked through the apartment to the living room, Arlo raises his head. Rosa smiles, giving him a little approving nod before she spots Amy passed out on the sofa with a mug of tea in her hands. Rosa shakes her head and steps over quietly, getting down on her knees in front of her to wrap the warm crochet blanket up around Amy’s shoulders. Amy shifts in her spot, almost spilling her half drunk mug of tea in the process before Rosa caught it in her own hands. She sighed with relief and sets it down on the end table next to them. 

“Rosa,” said Amy softly. There is a sad expression on her face and it mixed with guilt. Rosa smiles softly as Amy opens her watery eyes. She had been crying it seemed and all Rosa could do was help wipe away her tears. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you earlier.” The apology wasn’t really necessary, but Rosa appreciated it. She takes a few strands of Amy’s hair and brushes them away from her sweaty forehead. Goddamn, she loved this girl and no amount of force in heaven or on earth could make Rosa stop.

“Shh, hey it’s okay.” Rosa reassured. “You don’t need to do that. I’ve already forgiven you. Come on. Let’s go to bed. We’ll talk in the morning.” Amy nods her head, catching a sob in her throat as she wraps her arms around Rosa. It was definitely the pregnancy hormones, and they seemed to be the courage inducer that was able to let Amy pile drive her feelings about the situation into a very stubborn detective. It did make Rosa become extremely aware about how she is behaving lately. She was reckless, and maybe slowing down for a while is something they both needed.


	15. Empty Spaces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Today is moving day. Three month pregnant Amy is moving out of Rosa's apartment and back to Jake's.
> 
> This is a very.. depressing chapter. I'm sorry D: But this sets up for a lot of things later on.

Today had been a hard day for Rosa to start. She could barely roll out of bed and even if she could, she would feel nothing but pain. Unfortunately, that was only half of it. Rsoa opens her eyes, sighing heavily as she felt the second body laying next to her. Amy was supposed to be moving out today and returning home to _him_. She didn’t have many things with her, so it didn’t take long to pack, but the hurt began to lay heavily on Rosa’s chest. She could feel Amy curl into her, but Rosa tries to ignore it out of spite.

“Jake’s not coming to get me until this evening,” said Amy softly. “Would you want to do anything?” Rosa can hear how sad her tone is. It was like she didn’t want to do this move either. She shifts in her spot, feeling Amy play with the dark curls that fall around her neck. Amy was three months pregnant right now and was starting to show a little bump. It was mesmerizing to see that there was something actually growing inside there, but right now, Rosa can’t bare to look at her.

All she could really do is lay there, feeling the way the hairs tickle the back of her neck when Amy plays with them. “No,” said Rosa simply. She didn’t need to explain to Amy why she didn’t want to. The girl just knew and backed off from the conversation without pushing it. Maybe Rosa needed some space? She had lived with her for three months and their routine was basic, yet effective in many ways. They played off each other naturally and their dynamic never faltered until now. They had their fights, but right now Rosa was just being childish. 

With a small sigh, Amy sits up and takes her leave out of the bedroom. She had been up already for a couple of hours, but she wanted to lay with Rosa as much as she could. Even though she had been with Jake for a long time, laying next to Rosa had felt genuinely different. She felt a lot safer with her, but in her mind, she knew she had to go back with Jake even if her heart was telling her not to. Amy was a logical person and her mind wasn’t being logical like it usually was, but she still put her trust in it despite that. 

It took several hours for Rosa to eventually peel herself off from the mattress. She is sore from laying for so long, but she shakes off the pain and carefully stands. The pain is subsiding a lot sooner than she thought even though there is still soreness in her leg. The wound on her side has completely healed thanks to Amy’s diligent help when it came to changing the bandages and cleaning it properly. It didn’t become infected which Rosa was grateful for. She dreaded having this conversation with Amy - the one about her leaving. 

This apartment will feel empty without her. Rosa had become so used to the idea of them living together, but it seemed like a far-fetched dream. She knew it would have to end eventually. Especially when Amy’s parents found out about the whole thing and it blew in their faces. She remembered Amy’s father raising hell about Jake that he got his baby girl pregnant. At least they’ve been attentive with situation and he has calmed down. He hates Jake as much as Rosa did and she is glad that someone is actually on her side of things.

Mr. Santiago was a tough man and Rosa respected the hell out of him. He was not easy to please, but the moment he met Rosa, it was like they had become best friends. It only took two weeks to get on his good side while everyone else took much longer to get the man to like them - Jake the longest. She could see why now. It clearly made much more sense to Rosa. When Rosa steps into the hallway, she is immediately greeted by Arlo who is hopping up on her happily. Rosa winces in pain, but doesn’t dare shove the canine away. “Why hello to you,” she said with a laugh.

When he settles, she looks over at Amy who had her focus on a documentary with tea in hand. Rosa scratches the back of her neck and groans quietly to herself as she treads over. She sighs, taking her hand and sliding it gently to Amy’s shoulder. The contact made Amy look away from her show and she smiles, glad to see that Rosa had finally decided to come out of the bedroom. “Hey,” she says and pats a seat next to her. Rosa didn’t reject the offer and moves around the couch and sits down next to her. “Good of you to join, Rosa.” Amy takes a jab at her pettiness and Rosa slides closer to Amy, wrapping her arms around her affectionately.

“I’m sorry for being an asshole sometimes,” said Rosa. Apologizing isn’t her forte, but since Amy has been staying with her, they have become more frequently. Rosa is being a lot more cuddly than usual, but Amy doesn’t dare interrupt it. She finds it enjoyable because it is rare to see Rosa like this any time else. She half-wondered if Rosa was part canine because Arlo is just as cuddly to her because of her pregnancy. Rosa rests her chin on Amy’s shoulder, but doesn’t dare reach a hand to the woman’s stomach - no matter how much she wanted to. “I’m just cranky.”

“ _Cranky_ is an understatement,” said Amy with a little laugh. God, Rosa is going to miss that laugh. She smiles and sits up from her spot even though it was super comfortable. She is glad Amy isn’t mad at her because she wanted to make sure they were on a good note before Amy left. She needed to make this day happy regardless of the future of their living arrangements. Maybe she could convince Amy to stay with her? She knows Amy would refuse and that she needs to be with Jake, but Rosa could see it Amy’s eyes that that is a fucking lie. It’s always the same excuse over and over.

From what Rosa could tell right now, Amy was glowing. It had to be her pregnancy, because she was nothing but smiles as she was sitting through the documentary. Amy had already decided she didn’t want to know the sex of the baby - because for one she could care less what it was. She already felt super attached and that’s all that mattered. It could be an _actual_ alien creature and she would love it just the same. That’s what Rosa loved about Amy the most. Those motherly instincts were starting to kick in and they were attractive to her. 

“I can say one thing,” Rosa said as her eyes shift to the documentary about Vikings. “That baby is going to have your intelligence _and_ good looks.” Amy smiles at the words, feeling the heat develop quickly in her cheeks. She was always so bashful when Rosa complimented her, but that was because she already knew about Rosa’s existing feelings for her. For that reason alone, it made things so much harder for Amy. If Amy did stay, she knew that Rosa would help take care of her and the baby, but she didn’t want to give that responsibility to her.

Rosa was still reckless at heart. She lives for danger and the safety of this baby was more important. With the whole case being put on hold right now, she knew Rosa would be willing to go back to it. She couldn’t jeopardize the baby’s safety over this mess that almost got Rosa killed. Amy takes Rosa’s hands and holds them to her stomach. This notion made Rosa tense for a moment, but she smiled. “Rosa,” began Amy as she held Rosa’s hands comfortably in place. “Would you want to be this baby’s godmother?” 

For a moment, Rosa didn’t know what to say. Would she be able to take care of a child if something happened? _What? No. Don’t even think like that. Nothing would ever happen to Amy. I’ll make sure of it._ A strange type of fear coursed through her entire system at the thought of something ever happening to Amy. If Jake was still around, she knew she would have to fight him, but lose the battle to be able to take care of it. Regardless, Jake would still be the father and he still has responsibility over this child even if he was a shitty husband. Amy must have figured out that Rosa would be the most trustworthy option to have if the case ever came up.

“Ames,” said Rosa with a little smile. “I would love to. You know I love this baby as much as you do already. You’re an incredible woman, you know?” 

It could be her pregnancy, but Amy felt something shift in this moment just now. It was an electrifying feeling. She recalled watching Hotel Transylvania one evening a couple months ago and the characters had called it their _’zing’_. It was a special connection to someone that meant absolutely everything to them. In the beginning, she always felt like Jake had been her zing, but now she is not so sure. “That makes me happy,” said Amy with a sigh of relief. She could feel her body relax into the couch, but the thought of Rosa being her own zing had been secretly loitering in the back of her mind.

“What would Jake say?” asked Rosa. “When you tell him I’m the godmother?”

“At this point, Jake’s opinion doesn’t matter when it comes to you,” explained Amy with such ferocity that even Rosa had leaned back a little. That was certainly interesting with the mood swing. She shook her head and leaned into the couch, but her hand never left Amy’s stomach. Now that it was there, it was nearly impossible to take it off. She caressed Amy’s stomach with the pad of her thumb as she simply decided to sit there and just enjoy the woman’s company while they had it. “Like I said, incredible.”

For the rest of the evening, the two women were curled into each other, watching television and waiting for the inevitable. Rosa could barely eat due to her constant mood shifts and Amy’s mood was starting to plummet from earlier when she checked the time. Jake would be there in two hours and she looks at the very few bags packed and neatly organized in the best Santiago fashion by the door. Even Arlo seemed to have known what was going on because his sad eyes kept staring at Amy the whole time they were watching tv. Amy moves in her spot to reach for her phone when she hears a text message from Jake coming through.

“Please stay,” said Rosa suddenly when Amy stood on her feet. They look at each other, knowing very well this can’t happen. 

“You know how much I want to, Rosa.” Amy admitted. “I can’t. Jake will be different. I promise.” Rosa shook her head at the words, not believing for a second that Jake would be a different man from before. There are all kinds of mixed emotions flowing through her, but all Rosa could is pick out the more logical and easier ones to handle. Anger was more prominent than all of them combined. It was a reasonable reaction to be angry at someone - but Amy was certainly not her target. “The baby needs its father eventually.” 

That fucking excuse. Rosa knew plenty of gay couples raising kids. Two women can clearly take care of a child far better than damaged man with his own daddy issues. There was a sudden knock at the door and Rosa shifted her angry eyes toward it. Arlo’s barks echoed through the apartment and if Rosa wasn’t mistaken, she heard him snarl through the door. “Arlo, come.” Rosa said. If she wanted, she would have released Arlo on Jake, but she decided to be well behaved as best as she could. She still wanted permission to come see Amy and the baby when it was born. 

When Amy opens the door, she was surprised to see Jake standing there looking pretty normal. He looked decent as if he had started to take care of himself again and this gave Amy a little hope. She looks back at Rosa, though who was sitting there with her arms wrapped around Arlo. “Give me one moment.” Amy said. Jake nods his head. He had already squashed his beef with Rosa from before, but he knew it would be a long time before Rosa had grew to trust him again. Amy sighs, and gets on her knees next to Rosa. “Hey,” she said, taking Rosa’s hand. It took everything Rosa to not retract her hand back, but she wanted to feel Amy’s touch.

“You can still come and see me,” Amy said with a smile. “I want you to, of course and when the baby is born, I want you to be in the delivery room with me, Rosa.” Rosa’s eyes lifted up from their hands. Amy wants her to be with them? For a second, Rosa was silent and she looks over at Jake. She is still unsure about the man who has caused so much toxic harm, but he reluctantly gave her an approving nod. Rosa thought this was just him using the smoke and mirror trick. Trying to get back in her good graces. She knew whatever Jake was dealing with because of his own shitty father, wasn’t over yet. 

Jake had promised that he wasn’t going to end up like his father, but he had broken it the moment he laid a hand on Amy and who knows how long before then he was mentally abusive to her. Rosa nods her head. “I’ll be with you. If you need _anything_ , don’t hesitate to call me. Text me. Something.” Amy stares into Rosa’s eyes, seeing the hint she was trying to give. This was a warning if Jake hadn’t changed at all. If Jake had started the same shit as before a couple months ago again, she would need someone like Rosa. She knew that Jake was only trying to be civil because of the way Arlo kept looking at him. It was almost as if he was guarding him - making sure he wasn’t going to do anything wrong.

“Of course,” said Amy. She leans in and kisses Rosa gently on her cheek. It was a little thank you for everything that she has done for her since the beginning of all of this. It felt like she was leaving and never seeing her again, and she hoped that wasn’t the case. Jake has been awfully protective of her before and she doesn’t know if he would try to keep her from seeing her best friend. “If you ever want to come over, you call me.” 

Rosa doesn’t know how long it would be before she is able to come over. She wanted Amy to get settled back into their original house in that little suburban area. It was perfect for her instead of her small, cramped apartment with a giant labradore. It wasn’t suitable at all to raise a child in anyway. She just nods her head and pets Arlo gently who was whining when he realized what was happening, seeing Jake pick up those suitcases. Rosa felt the same way as he did. “You can come over, too, Arlo.” she smiled and scratches his ears which earned her a few sloppy licks of his tongue. She laughs and heads over to the door. 

It was surreal that she was going back, but she knew it had to happen. The door closes behind them, leaving Rosa and Arlo there sitting alone with each other. The room immediately became cold and lonely. It was a ridiculous feeling because she neve knew herself to act this way toward anyone. She always kept her feelings in check. She needed to keep tabs on Amy throughout her pregnancy, but she knows the woman won’t come clean if Jake is still misbehaving. Amy tries to protect him even though she gets the short end of the stick. It was a difficult situation that Rosa thought she’d never be apart of - but here she was.

Later that night, her mood was still the same. She received a few updated texts from Amy about how she felt about moving. _**’I already miss you’**_ had been one of them. It makes Rosa’s heart ache when she lays there in an empty bed. The sheets still smell like Amy and she has no desire to change them yet. She will leave them like they are for a few days if not a week just so she could hold onto it. She smiles, though, knowing that Amy had asked her to not only be the baby’s godmother, but be in the delivery room when the baby was born. Jake never objected to it either. That was a good sign at least, but only time will tell if Jake’s true intentions will surely reveal themselves once again.


	16. Double Trouble

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Rosa visits Amy for the first time in a couple weeks, Amy reveals exciting news to her. Even with the exciting news, Jake's behavior that is fully explained remains the same as always. At least he is trying somewhat. 
> 
> **This chapter is very fluffy and depressing at the same time. Sorry. xD

Two weeks have gone by since Amy had moved back to Jake’s and all Rosa could do was try to sink back into her old routine from before. It was difficult for the most part because every time that she came home from work, she expected Amy to be sitting on the couch curled up in a blanket watching some documentary or reading a book. It was a lot lonelier that was for sure and it even began to affect Arlo. He had no purpose it seemed because he was busy trying to watch over the pregnant woman.

“It’s okay, boy. Today, we’ll go see her.” Rosa promised as she gently ran a hand along the side of the dog’s face. Arlo whined, wagged his tail and hopped up in her lap which was sometimes uncomfortable. For now, she would deal with him because he was missing Amy as much as she was. He became used to her after how long Amy was around. “Arlo, jeez.” She smiled softly Amy had called her earlier this morning, wanting to see her. Rosa had given ample amount of time to settle back into her home and she was sure that Amy felt indifferent about it too. 

They were just so adapted to each other’s energies, communication and instinct came fairly easy to each other. While Rosa watched a random series on Netflix, she received a phone call. Her eyes shift over to the name that popped up and it had been Jake’s name. _Ugh. What does he want?_ Jake had been civil with her majority of the time aside from a few snide remarks about how he treats Amy at times. There were days he was good, but then he had days that were bad. Amy ensured Rosa that she had everything taken care of, and even enlisted Gina to help her who actually managed some time last week to take her to her doctor’s appointments. 

Rosa was thankful that Gina was able to step in, because even though she felt guilty that she wasn’t able to. “Hello?” Rosa’s tone was flat and uninterested when she picks up the phone to answer Jake’s call. He was on the other line, explaining that Amy wanted to see her and he was laying out a few ground rules about coming over. Sadly, Arlo wouldn’t be able to join them because since Amy had been gone, her allergies had doubled up. She had been around Arlo for so long, as long as she was around him - her immunity seemed rather intact. Now, after two weeks with no Arlo, her allergies returned.

 _Shit. Poor Arlo. He really wants to see her._ She places a hand down on a snoozing canine and sighs, feeling guilty “Alright. I’ll be over in an hour then.” She hangs up the call and shifts in her spot which in turn, makes Arlo roll around on the couch within the blanket that Amy always used. Rosa didn’t know how to break it to him that he wouldn’t be able to see Amy until after her pregnancy. She didn’t know how her allergies would affect it, if at all because of how severe they were back then. It seemed Jake was as controlling as ever, though. Rosa wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

-S-

An hour had gone by and Rosa had rolled up to Jake and Amy’s place in the little suburban neighborhood. As usual, it was a quiet place, but it appeared to be relatively safe aside from the posing danger inside the house. Rosa swings a leg off her motorcycle and slips her helmet off her head to breathe in some fresh air. It even smelled clean. She takes a few deep breaths before making her way up the sidewalk, clutching her helmet underneath her arm. Even if it’s been two weeks, it would feel like yesterday since Rosa last saw Amy. She was going through her first trimester fairly smoothly and Rosa was happy about that.

The pain in her leg was steadily getting better. Little by little and day by day, it was slowly subsiding and she was able to do more things. Every now and then, a huge surge of pain would shoot from her leg all the way to her ankle, reminding her of her foolish mistake that night. Eventually, she will have to pay Viktor a visit at the whiskey distillery, but today was about spending time with Amy. _I’ll have to deal with him another day._ She wasn’t exactly ready to put herself out there again after him, so she decided to wait and regain most of her strength.

She knocked on the door and she heard a pair of feet padder toward it in a hurry. When the door opened, seeing Amy’s face again made Rosa’s heart jump straight from her chest. “Rosa,” the other woman said with a smile and wraps her arms around her friend’s neck. Amy had to admit that things felt different. Sleeping next to Jake instead of Rosa was awkward, but she knew she had to get used to it sooner or later. Jake preferred sooner most of the time. She wouldn’t even be affectionate with him unless he wanted it, so she was glad to see a friendly face.

“Hey you,” said Rosa. Her eyes, only for a moment shift down to Amy’s stomach. It had gotten slightly bigger in two weeks. Rosa could tell the difference even though most people couldn’t. “I missed you so much.” 

“No way. I missed you way more,” said Amy who still hadn’t let go of Rosa. The only time she was able to pry herself away was when Jake walked through the room and nodded to Rosa simply. He never even said hi. Rosa watches as he sits down on the couch and flips the television to some sports channel that he seemed to be infatuated with. Rosa didn’t mind, she was more infatuated with Amy anyway. “Let’s go in the bedroom and talk so we can leave Jake to his program.” Amy suggested, taking Rosa’s hand gently in hers before leading her to the bedroom Rosa was only in once before.

Rosa took a look around the room. The night that she was here last was the night she discovered the bruises on Amy’s arms. She seems to be clear of them from what she sees without actually looking. Before the door closed, Amy’s arms were around her again, but Rosa’s arms clamped down to her side and she had this odd look on her face. “I’m so glad you’re here,” said Amy as she buried her face into the familiar leather jacket. “So much has happened. Rosa, you wouldn’t believe what I found out from my last doctor’s appointment. Me and Jake went to get another ultrasound check up…”

There seems to be a type of urgency in Amy’s tone and it makes Rosa’s anxiety flare up. “Is the baby okay?” It was the first thing that popped into her mind.

Amy only smiles, nodding her head as she pulled Rosa to the bed and sits down. “Yeah, the babies are doing amazing.”

 _Wait… babies? As in more than one?_ Rosa’s eyes widened when she realized what Amy had just said. “Did you just say _**babies**_?” Immediately, Rosa’s heart began to beat as fast as a hummingbird’s and she is staring at Amy with equal fascination as she is with amazement. “You’re having twins?” When Amy first told her she was pregnant, Rosa felt like she was going to pass out. Now, with twins, she felt like her heart was going to burst with so much joy for Amy. There is a small smile on Amy’s face as she takes Rosa’s hand and places it on her stomach.

“Yeah. There’s two little souls in there.” Amy said. She can clearly see the astonishment on Rosa’s face and can feel how shaky the woman’s cold hands were. Clearly, she was just as excited as she was that Rosa was going to be a godmother to two little crotch goblins that she will have to spoil. “Their due date is in June. Not exactly sure a date. I’m really not worried.” Even though there were so many emotions swelling inside her, worry is definitely one of the main feelings despite it being lesser than the others. It was a normal feeling to have during a pregnancy. 

Rosa had to think everything through. She sits up for a second and rearranges herself between Amy’s legs on the floor. Rosa was eye level with Amy’s plump stomach. It wasn’t big yet to be noticeable by anyone who didn’t realize she was pregnant, but to Rosa the signs were there. She places both of her hands against Amy’s flesh as the other woman holds her shirt up. She didn’t know much about pregnancy and babies, but Rosa could tell she already had an attachment to them. Amy smiles softly, slipping a hand over top Rosa’s and sighs, feeling happy for once. 

“I missed you,” said Amy. Eyes lift up to Amy’s and Rosa smiled, feeling the same. _Goddamn, how can two weeks of separation make a person feel this way?_ It was interesting, considering she thought Jake would be here right now instead of her. Amy was away from him for a whole month at least and his heart doesn’t seem to be in the right place as Rosa’s. She wonders what he wants out of this crumbling relationship if he has no desire to dote on his wife or spend time with her. “Honestly, it doesn’t feel the same here.” 

Rosa sighed and sits up on the bed once more, letting Amy rest her head on her shoulder. “I figured. It feels empty at the apartment without you.” She can feel those feelings she has for Amy being stirred. They always lay dormant and in check, but every now and then they slip to the surface and remind Rosa why she’s a detective. “I wish you lived with me.” 

“You know I wish that too, Rosa. I just… can’t.”

There was always some kind of an excuse for that. She didn’t blame Amy though because of all the alone time she has spent with Jake, who knows what kind of bullshit he has been feeding her. Rosa shrugs her shoulders, falling backwards onto the bed. It was Jake’s side of the bed, but she wished it was her own. It was stupid how she imagined herself in Jake’s place, but sadly there was nothing she could do about it. If Amy was truly in love with Jake, she couldn’t take that from her. 

Amy looks over her shoulder back at Rosa, sighing deeply. “Would you want to stay for dinner? I’m not cooking so at least you won’t die.” She chuckles, making light jest at her own cooking skills or lack thereof. Rosa smiles, and sits up after a few moments. Both of their eyes caught each other in a peculiar kind of way and it made Amy’s stomach do a somersault. She was certain it wasn’t the twins doing that, too, but her own feelings that have been laying in wait. She has admitted to herself that she feels something for Rosa, but she isn’t quite sure what it was. Amy had only realized this last week, which is why she was so excited about Rosa’s visit today.

“Let’s not leave Jake in there by himself.”

“He seems to be doing fine watching football.”

“Rosa,” Amy muttered the woman’s name with a soft sigh. “Come on. We’re ordering some take out tonight. My treat this time after taking care of me.” This girl was sweeter than apple pie. Rosa was able to crack a small smile before pulling the woman into an embrace. She held her there for a little longer than usual, unsure when she was going to be able to do so again after today. They stand on their feet and made their way back through the living room. “Would you like a beer or something? I’m drinking tea, so, you can have one of mine.” Amy opens the fridge, seeing two different kinds of beer: one pack was Jake’s and the other is hers. 

“Oh no, I’ll have some tea with you.” Rosa said, holding her smile from before. It made Amy light up when she heard the detective’s words and Amy got right on it making a cup of hot tea for the both of them. It was kind of awkward standing in the kitchen, and Jake still hadn’t said a single word to her. She had been there for two hours already. “Hey Jake. Just wanted to congratulate you. Amy told me about the news.” Rosa said as she leans against the counter in the kitchen. She is handed a piping hot cup of black tea with cream and she takes a little sip of it. It was pretty good, but she wasn’t used to drinking tea like Amy was. 

There was no response from Jake at first. He simply took a swig of his beer and kept his eyes trained on the game in front of him. He wasn’t as talkative as he once was and that made Rosa feel strange. She hoped that he would at least act like his normal self when she was around him, but he couldn’t even do that. The situation was starting to make Amy feel nervous and Rosa picked up on that instantly as she heard the woman’s fingers tap along her mug. “I have to use the bathroom for a second. I’ll be back,” she said and gave Rosa’s arm a gentle squeeze.

It was hard to watch Amy as she escaped to the bathroom for a bit of privacy. Rosa couldn’t blame her for it. She cleared her throat and steps into the living area with her tea and sits down in the recliner a few feet away from Jake. This entire today feels like she’s being raked over coals trying to get Jake to pay a single ounce of attention to anything but the damn T.V. At this point, she just gave up on communication part and just sat in silence like she normally preferred. The time ticked slower as she waited for Amy to come back, but when she did she sighed with relief when the woman joined them.

“I’ll put in some orders. We’re having Chinese. Babe, what would you like?” 

“Same order as usual,” Jake said. There was actually a bit of enthusiasm in his voice for once. “Crab rangoons and generals tso's chicken and rice combo. Don’t forget the sauce this time.”

Rosa is watching Jake carefully as he talks to Amy. It was pretty normal she thought, but at the last command, she could see Amy pursed her lips together as she nodded understandingly to him. Amy looks over at her as she starts to order online from her phone. “And you, Rosa?” 

“Just the broccoli chicken combo,” replied Rosa with a smile.

“That’s actually what I like, too.” The two women chuckle and Amy puts in the order. It would be a thirty minute wait because of delivery, but Rosa is in no hurry to leave. She wants to stay as long as Jake allows her, but even then she may not leave. Jake would have to force her out a gun point, but she knew that she would never let that escalate to that severity. Jake rolls his eyes at Amy’s comment and turns the volume up a little louder to drown out their noise. Rosa knew he was annoyed with the whole conversation, but with Jake sitting there it was hard for Amy to be herself. She seemed tense and unwavering whenever he was in the room with her.

Rosa figured she was suffering through some level of PTSD from this. The tension in the room was ridiculous to say the least, but Rosa maintained her professional manner and continued to sip her tea even if it was irritating that Jake tried to shut them up a few times. “If you two want to talk, there’s a whole ‘nother section of the house.” Jake points the tip of his beer bottle down the hall that leads to the patio out back. While they waited for food, Rosa stands on her feet, beckoning Amy to show her the way. It was one section of the house she hadn’t been in yet so she would like to see it anyway. 

“I’m sorry about him,” Amy apologized in a quiet whisper as she led Rosa down the hall. “He’s been under a lot of stress again.” She paused for a moment, looking at Rosa who seemed worried. “He hasn’t hurt me, though. He’s trying, Rosa, but Jake has anger issues ever since he cut his father from his life. He thought that he’d be better about it, but it’s only gotten worse. He’s been going to therapy for it.”

It was good that Jake was going to therapy for his anger issues, but it didn’t make Rosa feel any better that he was living under the same roof as Amy who was now pregnant with twins. “Are you positive that he has it under control? I don’t want a repeat of last time. If he hurts you again, I’ll lose my job over it because I’ll kill him.” Amy shifts her eyes in Rosa’s direction and shakes her head, feeling like a complete fool. “You don’t have to apologize for him either. I know the real Jake is in there somewhere, Amy, but right now… _that’s not him_.” She shoves a finger in the direction of the living room and Amy nods her head.

“I know, but I can’t risk anything. I need to see this pregnancy through with Jake. Maybe when the babies are here, things’ll change.” Amy still retained that positivity she had for Jake since the beginning of all of this. Rosa shakes her head in disbelief, downing the rest of her tea before setting the cup down on a small table. The patio was nice and it had a large open space with carpeted floors. The patio had a screen that wrapped around the room and Rosa could feel the fall air sift through. It felt cool to her face and she could tell this was an area that Amy spent the majority of her time. 

There was a large screen T.V. above a fireplace and a comfortable looking wicker chair that had a squishy, sherpa blanket with a book open, laying upside down. After a few quiet moments of listening to the birds sing outside, Rosa felt arms wrap around her waist. This was becoming too close for comfort sometimes and it was getting hard for Rosa to keep her feelings contained. She places a hand over top Amy’s, giving her the slightest bit of comfort she needed. “It’s a bitter pill I have to swallow, Rosa, but I need to stay loyal.” It was hard for Rosa to listen to Amy trap herself even further in this. 

At least there was no sign of Jake’s violent behavior like before. He very could be restraining himself, fighting another angry demon inside of him. However, even if that was the case, Amy was the more important variable in all of this. Jake’s anger was causing her stress and Rosa could see it on her face. If only she could do something to ease Amy’s suffering only a little, but it looked like as long as she was there in the same room with her, she was already helping her heal.


	17. Under His Clutches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rosa finds herself in an interesting situation with Viktor. As Amy enters her second trimester, Rosa sees that Jake is doing well, but Rosa continues to be wary about him.
> 
>  ***Side note:** Sorry for the delay. Where I sliced my hand open and got 7 stitches in the ER, it's been hard to write, but I'm kinda able to get something written down now. :) Hope you enjoy and thanks for sticking with me. 💞

Rosa didn’t know how many times she had counted throughout the night, but that constant dripping noise was starting to irritate her. The familiar stench of copper and her favorite, aged liquor forced heavy eyes to open only slightly to see blurred, stone walls. She tried to gather her bearings, but her mind felt disconnected from her sore body. She felt bruised and beaten like she had been in a fist fight and lost, but the panic didn’t settle in until she felt the restraints at her wrists. _Shit,_ thought Rosa as she pulled on the zip ties, only making them worse.

Her ass felt numb for sitting so long, but as soon as she moved to adjust her position, she realized the same restraints were at her ankles and she toppled over onto the floor. Was she in some basement? It felt like a huge industrial building of some kind, but at the moment she was unaware of the location until she saw the huge copper stills that took up most of the space inside the room she was in. Using her core, she sits up and looks around for anything she could use to cut the zip ties, and settled on some of the jagged stone wall. 

Hollow laughter could be heard from the top of a huge staircase and her eyes immediately connected to the exit. However, she sees an armed guard at the door coming to most likely check on their apparent captive. Quickly, Rosa scrambles to her feet, forgetting about the zip ties until she found the time and parked herself back onto the chair she had been placed on. “Yes, yes. I know. I’ll get the payments to you soon.” Rosa listened to the voice, recognizing it pretty quickly. “Ha, yes. I’ll throw in a few surprises for your efforts. Thank you for doing business with me, sir. I must take care of a few things. I’ll text you.”

As the suited man follows behind the guard down to the bottom floor, she wraps her hands back into its original position, faking the fact that she had freed herself. There was no way she could defend herself against an assault rifle, though, so the guard poses a real threat right now. “Ah, you’re awake,” said the bald headed man. It was Viktor. He places his phone down inside his vest pocket and gives Rosa a charming smile. “You’re quite resilient even when you’re drunk, detective.” _Drunk? That’s right. I went out drinking to get Amy off my mind. I guess I went too far._ Viktor tuts softly as he pulls up another chair and sits in front of her.

“How’s the restraints? Not too tight I hope.” Viktor chuckles.

“Cut the niceties, Legrand. What do you want? Shouldn’t you be in Argentina avoiding prison time?” Rosa leaned forward with a stern expression. “Because when my squad finds out that you have me held here, they will come for you.”

“Rosa, Rosa… I only come in peace. Maybe we can work together here. I have a few propositions for you.” There is an unsure expression on Rosa’s face and she raises her eyebrows in suspicion. “I understand your concern, but I have a few issues that you could benefit from.” Was Rosa really going to consider it? She didn’t have any room to talk or reject his offers regardless. Her eyes shift the guard with the rifle in his arms and she clears her throat softly.  
  
“A phone call couldn’t suffice? Stalking, kidnapping, assault… who knows what else just to get me to talk to you?” Rosa scoffed.

“All necessary because you have a lot of potential. I see that from our previous encounter. Still alive too, I see.” Viktor nods down to Rosa’s leg and directs a finger casually to the side where he had stabbed her with the pen knife. Her eyes shift down to the scabbed wound, knowing that it has healed up since then, and even her leg has been doing better, but she has not forgotten the bullshit Viktor has put her through that night. “You want information about the Brooklyn Butcher? I can lead you right to him as long as you do a few things for me in return.”

Rosa’s heart lunged forward at the proposal. Does she really even trust Viktor? No, of course not, but if he really has legitimate information about this killer that has been terrorizing the city for over six months, she needed it now and she only felt pinned under his clutches. She inhaled stale, damp air and swallowed as she debated with herself. “And what if I refuse?” Rosa asked, dreading the outcome of this entire situation. Even if it was simply picking up his mail, she wouldn’t do it under any normal circumstances, but there is a gun pointed at her face. She didn’t want to risk getting shot again, but this time no cell phone, no radio communication, not even her gun. 

_Absolutely fucking nothing_. 

“Well, you have loose lips when you’re drunk, detective. You have certain feelings for a married woman. It’d be a shame if something happened to her and her unborn children.” Viktor and his guard exchange devilish grins. Every fiber in Rosa’s body lit up in flames. She tightened her jaw and inhaled sharply to keep herself in check. Her body, despite being sore, was rattling with an intense amount of energy as if she took a power nap for twenty minutes and was ready to run a marathon. She kept herself grounded, closing her eyes to block out the worst case scenario. 

She didn’t want to upset Viktor because who knows what could happen if anything happened at all to Amy. “This is between you and me Viktor. Don’t bring her into this.” If Rosa wanted to, she could beg on her knees and plead for Amy’s safety, but that would mean whatever he has in store for her, she would have to come through in the end for her sake. “I’m sorry, detective, but I need a bit of leverage. Now, are you willing to sit here and listen to what I want you to do for me? Hm?” Viktor smiles as he takes out a cigarette from a copper colored case.

He offers one to Rosa, but she shakes her head. After a little time, Viktor lights it up and takes a long drag off of it and sighs deeply. “Fine. I’ll do whatever it is.” Pleased with the answer, Viktor stands on his feet and offers the same seat to his guard who takes it gladly. The burly looking man stares across the small space at Rosa who wasn’t giving the man any mind. Her attention was on Viktor as he checked the stills and the whiskey that was brewing inside. “I need you to be my date for a very important event. There’s a private auction next weekend and I have a few buyers that are interested in some artifacts and jewelry with some... _stolen_ qualities.” His voice trails off a bit as he smiles.

Rosa arches her brows, unsure how sketchy this was going to be, but continues to hear him out. “I don’t trust these people as far as I can throw them and I was hoping that if things went south during the bidding process, you’d be there to swoop in and save the day. You certainly know how to dress the part considering your getup at the bar and you can handle yourself quite well in a predicament.” It didn’t seem that difficult. Mingle, enjoy a couple boozy drinks and ignore the fact these billionaires are dabbling in an auction consisting of stolen artifacts and jewelry. Holt would have her head on a silver platter if he knew that she was working with Legrand.

“And Amy will be unharmed if I do this?” Rosa hesitantly asked.

“Not a single hair on her pretty little head. Billionaires honor.” Viktor grinned as he held up the scouts honor sign with his fingers. “Oh, I would also need you to slip some of the stashed drug from the bar in Tritan Bates’ drink while I address formal introductions. That slimy bastard owes me and I’ll have to deal with him personally after I relieve you from your duties.” If it was one thing Rosa hated, it was the rich. She didn’t mind their money when it was offered, but she hated what those people become after so long being blinded to it. Now, she has to spend an entire evening having social interactions with idiots and pretend to be Viktor’s new play thing to make an impression.

Once everything was all said and done, Rosa nodded her head in agreement, sealing the deal with Viktor about the sketchy private auction. She knows that if this gets back to Captain Holt, she would be in deep shit for fraternizing with him, but there wasn’t much she could do with Amy’s life thrown in the mix now. She had to do whatever to ensure her safety even if it meant being arm candy. Viktor seemed pleased with the outcome and as he walks over he bends over and grabs a handful of Rosa’s hair and twists tightly into his grasp. “If you ever tell anyone about our little meeting, I’ll rain hell down on you, Diaz. I like you, so let’s keep it that way, for poor Amy’s sake.”

He shoves her backwards and when he does, Rosa’s head collides roughly against the wall behind her. Groaning in pain, she chokes on saliva, but when she tries to reach for her head, she is met with the butt end of a rifle and the last thing she saw before she wakes up again was the inside of her eyelids and the silhouette of the large, burly man.

-S-

Rosa feels like she had woken from the biggest hangover she had ever experienced. She didn’t know what time she had gotten home last night after her ordeal, but she was thankful when her lips were met with a very bitter taste of caffeine. “You look horrible,” said Jake as he walked by coming from Captain Holt’s office. They had been pretty civil in the last few days because Amy told them to be, but Rosa didn’t really feel like dealing with his faux personality around her. She looks up at him with these tired eyes and waves a hand to end the conversation. Rosa definitely wasn’t in the mood.

She wasn’t even in the mood to do a case outside the office. All she wanted was to file a few documents, watch Hitchcock and Scully attempt to arm wrestle each other for the last slice of pizza and go home on the fourth cup of coffee she was desperately needing right now. Honestly, she wanted to swing by and see Amy because last night had worried her. She wondered if anyone had visited Amy from Viktor’s end and threatened her. As Jake walks away shrugging his shoulders, she checks her leather jacket pockets and finds her phone and her gun was put back on her hip. It almost felt like a bad hangover nightmare.

But as she felt around inside her left pocket, she found a slip of paper folded up neatly. Before she reads it, she makes sure that no one is around peering over her shoulder. She knew that Holt was pretty good at randomly appearing over people’s shoulders at odd times, so she must be discrete about what she was doing. Her eyes shift up and she observes her surroundings. Everyone seemed to be in their own little world at the moment, so Rosa unfolds it behind her open laptop. She was familiar with the handwriting, and the note’s message sparked deep concern:

__

_Rosa,  
The Butcher you seek is very close to you,  
It’s a definite surprise, but this is nothing new.  
If you follow my requests, meet my demands,  
Everything you desire will end up in your hands._

_Viktor._

Well, that wasn’t bleak or anything. A wave of chills went down her spine as she read the little message over in her head. What did he mean by the Butcher is close to her? With the question in her mind, she folds up the paper and shoves it in the front pocket of her jeans. She sighs deeply, despising Viktor’s riddles and cryptic messages. She wasn’t in the mood for any of this. Feeling a piercing migraine, Rosa digs into one of the drawers at her desk and pops a couple baby aspirins in her mouth and swallows them.

Finally, she was able to leave. She hated the fact that she was more than ready to go home from a job that she loved. It was starting to drain her, but there was no way she was giving up the search. Even if she ends up losing her job over her determination and persistence, she wants the Brooklyn Butcher off the streets. She enters the break room and notices Captain Holt talking with Charles and Jake. “What’s going on?” Rosa asked as she grabbed up a mug and began to fill it to the rim with coffee. 

Charles had been on speaking terms with her, but she isn’t sure how friendly he was. Ever since Amy moved back into Jake’s apartment, things between all three of them have been rather mutual for the time being. It’s all Rosa ever wanted. She didn’t want to cause more chaos if she could help it. “Another woman fell victim to the Butcher,” he said as and folds his arms across his chest. Rosa blinks, taking the mug up to her lips. “That’s a third victim in a month and everyone is panicking. It’s been kind of difficult to keep the peace.” Rosa takes a sip before pulling the mug away, sighing dreadfully.

“Dammit. If we were still working this case, we would have had it solved already.” Rosa says, pretending to not have been involved in the case at all since she’s been kicked off of it. Nodding his head in agreement, Jake looks at Captain Holt who was just as concerned as they were and he apparently had Charles and a few beat cops out on patrol. 

“I’m half tempted to issue a city wide curfew. I’ll get in contact with the city commissioner and have a public meeting and see what we can do to help protect our citizens a little more. Or at least maintain order.” His voice was deep as usual, but there was a hint of tiredness to it. They were all tired and Rosa knew that she needed to deal with Viktor eventually again on the coming weekend. Once Holt had left the break room, Rosa turned to Jake. He seemed to be doing a lot better than he was. 

He wasn’t irritable, and he was being his usual self - unless this was all a ruse. That’s a huge difference from the last time she saw him. “Hey, so, Terry kinda told me what went down with that Viktor guy. When they interviewed that woman from the bar, I kind of overheard how you kicked some major ass.” Not surprised that Terry eventually spilled the beans to someone. She sighed, shaking it off. Was Jake trying to butter her up? It was working a little bit and she couldn’t help but feel her ego swell a little. It was inevitable. She shrugs her shoulders and pulls up her shirt to show the scarred up stab wound and Jake’s eyes widened. “ _Daaamn_. That’s a juicy cut.” 

“Gross. Please don’t say juicy,” Rosa said and cringes at the word. She is happy that Jake is supposedly doing better, but she doesn’t want to go into a discussion about how his mind is. It was far too personal. It may backfire on her later on. She also doesn’t want to mention the wound in her leg that has left her with an unnoticeable limp. Rosa knows that Jake will go straight back to Amy and tell her how close to death she had been. “Don’t tell anything to Holt. He had no idea I even went undercover that night. I was still off the case then.” Rosa explained as she leaned back against the table. “So much shit has happened. It’s ridiculous.”

Jake seemed rather intrigued, but he doesn’t pry. They remain civil until they both departed and for once work had been somewhat enjoyable despite her exhaustion. She wanted to ask how Amy was doing, but she figured she’d get a call later. She was going into her 2nd trimester and she could feel Amy trying to distance herself from her. Ever since she had promised herself that she needed to stay loyal to Jake, Rosa must have figured Amy’s feelings were changing about Jake. Amy has told Rosa she doesn’t feel the same way about him as she once did and it was confusing and even more so with kids on the way. 

Either way,Rosa felt like she must see her despite everything.


	18. Paranoid Precautions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An extremely paranoid Rosa visits Amy and warns her of Viktor's plan.

It was less than a day before Rosa was able to pull herself together and go see Amy. Jake hadn’t been home, so it was just as good of a time as any. She had alerted her beforehand that she was coming over, so it wasn’t like this was a spontaneous visit coming out of nowhere. As Rosa pulled up on her motorcycle, she had a sense of dread. Their house seemed virtually untouched for the most part from the outside and Amy didn’t seem to have a bit of urgency in her tone when Rosa spoke to her.

She shouldn’t be so cautious, but if Viktor’s people had been here before, then she was sure that they were still around or could come around again if they wanted. Like a detective, she had to stay vigilant for now, trying to find anything that she could use to call Viktor out the next time she saw him. Amy opens the front door with an unsure expression on her face as she felt Rosa wrap her arms around her. It was a different kind of embrace from the others. It was more protective and claustrophobic as if Amy was trying hard to take a breath but couldn’t because Rosa was fearing for her safety.

“Rosa, what’s going on? You sounded panicked on the phone.” Amy said as she prys Rosa’s arms from her for only a moment to get the woman to focus on something else than her surroundings. “You’re scaring me.”

“Did anyone come into contact with you over the weekend? Anyone you didn’t know?” Rosa asked as she moved through the house, searching for anything out of the ordinary. She couldn’t find anything obvious at first, but she had stopped for a second when she saw the nursery being built in a spare room off to the side near the master bedroom. Her heart pounds against her chest as she pushes the door open slightly and stares at the two cribs that were built up on opposite sides of the room. Amy stands behind her and turns on the light to reveal chocolate and tan colored paint on the walls.

Amy had no idea what the twins were going to be and in fact, she didn’t care what sex they were. So, she figured a unisex color would best suit the room. She wanted the delivery to be a surprise and so she declined seeing the latest ultrasound. There is a soft smile on Amy’s face when she sees how calm Rosa became. “Wow. This is surreal.” Rosa said as she walks to the center of the room and turns to face Amy. Her eyes shifted to Amy’s belly and couldn’t help but grin. 

She shouldn’t drop her guard like this when what happened to her over the weekend was still at the forefront of her mind. Rosa snaps out of her thoughts and steps out into the hallway before closing the door. “Rosa,” said Amy sternly. She could detect the worry in the other woman’s eyes and she sighs. “Come with me. We’re getting you some tea.” Amy said as she pulled Rosa by the hand, their fingers were immediately laced as she was guided back to the kitchen. It was just during this calm moment, Rosa realized how touch-starved she had been since Amy moved back in with Jake.

“Now what are you so worked up about?” asked the former Sergeant as she prepares a simple cup of herbal tea in a kettle on the stove. She looks over her shoulder, raising a brow in Rosa’s direction as she turns the knob on the stove to get the water boiling. Amy steps away from the kettle briefly and stands beside Rosa, trailing a gentle hand down the detective’s arm in a comforting manner. Rosa releases a short breath as her eyes are met with concerning ones. She doesn’t exactly know where to begin. The entire weekend felt like a blur to her.

Running a hand through her hair, Rosa swallows before she catches herself again in a slight panic. It was almost impossible to get a hold of these emotions when they were so fresh. “Legrand visited me over the weekend. Actually,” Rosa said as her eyes scan the living room. She has never felt so fucking paranoid before in her life. “I was drunk and woke up at his whiskey distillery.” Amy is now just as confused, but she continued to listen before Rosa had decided it was best she shouldn’t continue. 

“I shouldn’t even be telling you this,” said Rosa. She digs into her pocket and pulls out the slip of paper from yesterday morning she had discovered. “Here,” she said as she handed it over. Amy looks down at the little piece of parchment with scribbled handwriting. It was absolute chicken scratch, but she could make out some of the words. “Read it,” Rosa said, “quietly to yourself. I figure you of all people could help me decipher what that means.” She takes a few steps to the center of the living room, and looks out the window through the curtain. There was no one on the street and it seemed to be a fairly normal day.

“Demands? What demands is he talking about?” Amy asked curiously as she flipped the paper over to see if there had been anything else. There wasn’t.

“I have to do a favor for him this coming weekend. It’s okay, though.” Rosa whispered. Maybe he had bugged the house? Rosa thought it would have been best to keep her volume at the bare minimum until she knew a hundred percent that Amy’s house was a safe place. That nothing bad was going to happen while she was gone. 

Amy narrows her eyes. “Even after what he had done to you at the bar? You can’t just walk right into his hands, Rosa. That’s a death sentence.” Her voice, which matched Rosa’s volume, had more of a serious tone.

“I almost died once already. Amy, I can handle it,” she said.

“Why? Did he threaten you?” Amy asked.

Rosa couldn’t tell Amy that Viktor hadn’t just threatened Rosa, but someone she loves. She didn’t want to put Amy in the same kind of panic-riddled emotion she was feeling right now. It was too much that she had come here in the first place, but she needed to see Amy, to make sure she was okay and at least warn her that Viktor would be coming if he didn’t get what he wanted. Rosa ignores Amy’s question about imminent threats and Viktor’s subtle hostility. 

“ _Rosa_ ,” said Amy with a bit more sternness in her tone. 

“Forget about it. Do not open that front door for anyone but me or Jake. You understand?” Rosa places her hands on Amy’s shoulders to get her attention fully on herself, but before it could happen a loud whistle blew from the kettle on the stove and Amy went to retrieve it with an oven mitt before proceeding with the tea. The continuous look of suspicion on Amy’s face finally eased up as she threw in a couple tea bags to let them steep. Amy understands what Rosa is trying to do, but the way Rosa is acting is proving to be problematic because she’s never seen Rosa like this before. 

Whatever had happened, must have really shook her to the core. “I understand what you’re saying, but I wish you would tell me. You know I’m always here.” Amy didn’t know what else she could do other than abide by Rosa’s worries. She wouldn’t open the door for anyone else and be sure to keep her eyes open more on her surroundings. Was Viktor planning on doing something to threaten herself or her family? It was the only explanation as to why Rosa was being super overprotective.

Rosa looks at her as she is handed the cup of tea and she feels relief when the warmth spreads through her fingers and hands. The scent of chamomile and a hint of mint flooded her nostrils. It soothes her mind for the most part but her brain couldn’t stop running. Rosa sighs deeply before taking a sip and she shakes her head. “I know you want to know, Amy,” she starts and taps her fingers along the ceramic mug, “but simply being here is risking everything. I should leave.” Rosa sets the mug down behind her on the counter and before she takes a step, she is pulled back by her wrist. She turns to look at what stopped her, seeing Amy’s eyes first.

“Tell me,” she said. “You know I can handle whatever it is.”

“Yeah, but I can’t.” Rosa muttered.

A small smile inched its way onto Amy’s face. She steps forward, not letting Rosa break free from the grip in her hand and before Rosa realizes it, Amy is leaning against the other woman. There is evidence of heat boiling between them because Rosa can feel a bead of sweat drip down from her temple. She knew this was dangerous, but she didn’t pull away. Her body reacted to the closeness and she wrapped her free arm around Amy, pulling her close. “He threatened you. I have to do what he says.” Her voice was a mere whisper, but Amy heard it.

“He threatened me? How?” Amy asked, looking up.

“I’m not sure,” said Rosa and huffs, feeling annoyed that she didn’t even know. “He was serious though. He’s volatile, Amy, but if I want more info about the Butcher, I need to comply.” Rosa thought maybe she should have extra muscle hanging around Amy’s house for the time being, but she didn’t want to upset Jake. He had been rather tolerable lately, and that would be just another headache she would have to deal with if he went back to his old ways over something she thought that would help. There was no way to protect Amy unless she did exactly what Viktor wanted.

_I need to do this for Amy’s sake,_ thought Rosa as she shifted herself out of place and moved to retrieve her tea again. She is calmer now, but she can’t help but observe the house every now and then as if something was truly wrong. “I’m sorry for scaring you,” she said and takes a few more sips to help ease the tension she was feeling. It was working. “I just… you know how much I care about you. I should have called instead.” Rosa finished, but Amy chuckled as she made her own cup of tea to join Rosa.

“I appreciate how much you care. Honestly, if…” Amy’s voice trails off as if she’s lost in thought for a moment. “... if I wasn’t married, I would consider being with you. You treat me right - more than anyone has and you’re not even mine.”

“You know, I could be,” Rosa said hesitantly. 

Amy smiles and shakes her head. “Maybe in another lifetime perhaps. Just not this one unfortunately.” Rosa understood every word spoken despite how much it pained her. She knew Amy was never hers to begin with, but that didn’t stop her from caring and loving her as if she was. Rosa feels Amy lean against the counter with her and the backs of their hands touch down between them. She was glad they could talk honestly with each other. Rosa wondered if Amy’s consideration had anything to with having mutual feelings for her, or it was just some off the wall fascination. 

It was probably better to put the conversation to rest. Rosa clears her throat, trying to change the subject entirely and focused more about the topic of the twins instead. “So, anything new on the little runts?” Rosa said in a more affectionate tone than anything. Amy giggles and slides a motherly hand against her stomach which was only a little plumper than last time. They were growing like weeds and it made Rosa smile from ear to ear. 

“Well,” began Amy as she took another sip of tea. “Morning sickness isn’t a joke and with twins, I feel like it’s even worse than what people are actually telling me. It’s like I’m being outnumbered and they’re both ganging up on me.” Rosa laughs, feeling as if her worries about Viktor were slowly subsiding for now as long as her focus was on something more important. “They’re going to be troublemakers.” Amy finished, chuckling quietly to herself. She was heading into her 13th week of pregnancy and Rosa didn’t realize how many changes the body goes through during it all until Amy started talking about them.

Rosa didn’t mind it. She enjoyed listening to Amy’s voice. “They’re going to be little demons,” corrected Rosa with a snort. “You know I’ll help whip them into shape.” Amy smiles, and sighs softly before beckoning Rosa to the back patio where she normally enjoys her quiet time. Rosa liked this area and remembers the last time she was here to see it. She didn’t get to enjoy much then, but now she is able to sit down in the wicker chair next to Amy and listen to the birds outside that were perched on a feeder. It was relaxing and something Rosa needed right now, but she couldn’t drop her guard. 

“I love this,” said Rosa a bit absentmindedly. Just sitting out here for a moment to enjoy how quiet it was had been something she had greatly missed. Ever since her injuries, she had been so focused on Viktor and work, she wasn’t able to stop and truly enjoy what was around her. Amy has helped her do that on countless occasions. Amy smiles as she watches Rosa close her eyes for a moment. She knew it was hard for Rosa to relax, only because Rosa had a huge heart that cared for a lot of people in her life. People that she wanted to protect. 

“Yeah,” replied Amy with a nod. “I love it too.”

Rosa needed to slow down, take time to cherish these moments. However, if she didn’t stop Viktor from doing whatever he was planning, then she wouldn’t have moments to cherish in the future. She grimaces at the thoughts that never seem to stop and the only way to stop them was to drown them out. “I should probably get going. Text me tonight.” Rosa said as she stood on her feet. Amy looks up from the page she was reading and she sighs, realizing there was nothing more she can do to get Rosa to stay for a little while - at least until Jake came home. It was probably for the best if she left before he showed up.

The detective finished up her tea and headed through the door to the kitchen. Amy follows quietly, trying to figure out if there was anything she could do or say to keep Rosa calm. She had always been like this though. She can recall countless times before how Rosa would become so adamant about doing things in a certain way that no one else could convince her otherwise. “Rosa, you shouldn’t worry.” said Amy as she washes out the mugs. She wipes her hands clean before following Rosa to the door. She didn’t know what Viktor had in mind either, but if it was enough to threaten her, then it was something he wasn’t revealing yet.

“You know, that’s not possible. I always worry,” said Rosa as she stepped onto the porch. The sun was starting to descend. “When Jake comes home, tell him what’s going on. I want him in the loop just because two pairs of eyes are better than one.” Amy smiles. She can see Rosa is trying to become friends with Jake again, but it’s still hard after all he has done. Still, normal isn’t really the same anymore. She wraps her arms around Rosa and the other Latina winced with pain. Every time she is hugged like this, she could feel her old wounds ache. She tried to conceal the pain the best she could and returned the embrace, kissing the top of Amy’s head.

-S-

Later that night, Rosa sits in her apartment with heavy metal rock blaring through her apartment. Arlo didn’t seem to mind it for he was quite used to the music by now. He was curled up in the corner of the living room and Rosa was laying back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling with a beer in her hand. The music seemed to be working, because the louder it became, the more empty her mind was. She breathes out, dangling her legs over the armrest with a soft groan. Her mind was light from the beer, but she had promised herself she wouldn’t go overboard like last time. She didn’t want to be hijacked off the street and held at gunpoint ever again.

 _ **'Hey,'**_ Rosa received a text from Amy and smiles. _**'Thank you for coming over. I missed you. It was nice seeing you despite the circumstances.'**_ Chuckling, Rosa smiles and responds to the text. She is terrible with text communication and preferred the phone over anything else, but with Jake home, there was no possible way for Amy to call her. Rosa knew telling Amy what was in store for her this weekend was out of the question. Amy knows that it's something desperate if he was threatening her life, but Rosa knew telling her the details would make things much more appalling than they appear. 

Even if she had learned her lesson, Rosa couldn’t help but have a few beers even if it was a weeknight. She keeps replaying what Amy said in her head about how she considered being with her at one point. In a perfect life, that would probably have happened, but not in this one. Amy belonged with Jake no matter how painful it sounded. She sits up and downs the rest of her beer before setting the bottle aside with the other three empty ones. “Fucking hell, this is so stupid,” she mumbled to herself as she gets up and turns off the stereo.

It became a lot quieter and Arlo raises his head when he sees her stand. He whines softly and she smiles, walking over to pet him. Since Amy left to go back, Arlo had been amazing therapy. Rosa wasn’t alone, or feeling lonely whenever her focus landed on him. “Come on, boy. Let’s go to bed.” she says and scratches his ears gently before beckoning him to follow her to the bedroom. This week was going to be incredibly long and she hated to say that she wished it wouldn’t end. Rosa feared that the coming weekend was going to be much worse.


End file.
